Berit Åström
Biographic Data
| ID | 1246797 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Berit Åström |
| GIVEN NAMES | Berit |
| FAMILY NAME | Åström |
| SIGNATURE | ÅSTRÖM B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Umeå University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7243-0059 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 6 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Single Parents: Representations and Resistance in an International Context
Post-Feminist Fatherhood and the Marginalization of the Mother in Cormac McCarthy's The Road
Critics have tended to dismiss feminist analyses of Cormac McCarthy's works as misguided, labelling investigations of potential narrative misogyny in his novels as irrelevant. In this article, the author argues that such investigations are, on the contrary, highly relevant in the current climate of mother-blaming. The author specifically explains how McCarthy’s 2006 dystopian novel The Road uses post-feminist fatherhood to valorize the father and…
The Absent Mother in the Cultural Imagination
Postfeminist Fatherhood in the Animated Feature Films Chicken Little and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Drawing on Hannah Hamad's concept of postfeminist masculinity, this article analyzes how the animated films Chicken Little (Disney, 2005) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Sony, 2009) construct postfeminist fatherhood in opposition to two traditional stereotypes: the emotionally distant authoritarian and the bumbling pal. In contrast to films from the 1980s and 1990s, in which sons struggle to live up to their fathers’ expectations, these fi…
A Narrative of Fear: Advice to Mothers
Taking present-day research into so-called new momism and intense mothering as a starting point, this article argues that the current mothering discourse, rather than articulating a new phenomenon, perpetuates a regulative discourse developed in the nineteenth century, in advice books written by medical doctors for pregnant women and new mothers. Both the Victorian and the present-day texts play on feelings of guilt and inadequacy in order to con…
The Symbolic Annihilation of Mothers in Popular Culture: Single Father and the death of the mother
This article takes as its starting point the paradoxical representation of mothers in popular culture. On the one hand the mother is constructed as central to the physical and emotional development of the child; on the other, she is routinely rejected or elided, questioned, and vilified. One expression of this ambivalent attitude is the re-circulation of the trope of the dead mother. The trope, which ostensibly is employed to create sympathy for …
Sucking the Corrupte Mylke of an Infected Nurse: Regulating the Dangerous Maternal Body
Drawing on medieval medical encyclopaedias, early modern and Victorian advice books, as well as twentieth scientific advice to mothers, and linking them to present-day mothering discourse in the media, this article discusses cultural attitudes towards breast-milk and nursing mothers. The texts present a paradox in that while breast-milk is claimed as the best food for an infant, and mothers who choose not to nurse are vilified, it is simultaneous…
Rape in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy and Beyond
Focusing on the sexualized violence of Stieg Larsson's bestselling Millennium trilogy – including the novels, Swedish film adaptations, and Hollywood blockbusters – this collection of essays puts Lars
Referred pain: Privileging Male Emotions in Narrative Instances of Female Physical Suffering
This article analyses literary patterns of female subordination, and focuses in particular on what the author terms ‘referred pain’. By juxtaposing two early modern texts, William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, with two modern visual texts, John Woo's Mission: impossible 2 and Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge, the author discusses the recurring trope of privileging male emotional suffering over female physical suffering, and …
The Symbolic Annihilation of Mothers in Popular Culture: Single Father and the death of the mother
This article takes as its starting point the paradoxical representation of mothers in popular culture. On the one hand the mother is constructed as central to the physical and emotional development of the child; on the other, she is routinely rejected or elided, questioned, and vilified. One expression of this ambivalent attitude is the re-circulation of the trope of the dead mother. The trope, which ostensibly is employed to create sympathy for …
The Absent Mother in the Cultural Imagination
Sucking the Corrupte Mylke of an Infected Nurse: Regulating the Dangerous Maternal Body
Drawing on medieval medical encyclopaedias, early modern and Victorian advice books, as well as twentieth scientific advice to mothers, and linking them to present-day mothering discourse in the media, this article discusses cultural attitudes towards breast-milk and nursing mothers. The texts present a paradox in that while breast-milk is claimed as the best food for an infant, and mothers who choose not to nurse are vilified, it is simultaneous…
Referred pain: Privileging Male Emotions in Narrative Instances of Female Physical Suffering
This article analyses literary patterns of female subordination, and focuses in particular on what the author terms ‘referred pain’. By juxtaposing two early modern texts, William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, with two modern visual texts, John Woo's Mission: impossible 2 and Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge, the author discusses the recurring trope of privileging male emotional suffering over female physical suffering, and …
Rape in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy and Beyond
Focusing on the sexualized violence of Stieg Larsson's bestselling Millennium trilogy – including the novels, Swedish film adaptations, and Hollywood blockbusters – this collection of essays puts Lars
Postfeminist Fatherhood in the Animated Feature Films Chicken Little and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Drawing on Hannah Hamad's concept of postfeminist masculinity, this article analyzes how the animated films Chicken Little (Disney, 2005) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Sony, 2009) construct postfeminist fatherhood in opposition to two traditional stereotypes: the emotionally distant authoritarian and the bumbling pal. In contrast to films from the 1980s and 1990s, in which sons struggle to live up to their fathers’ expectations, these fi…
A Narrative of Fear: Advice to Mothers
Taking present-day research into so-called new momism and intense mothering as a starting point, this article argues that the current mothering discourse, rather than articulating a new phenomenon, perpetuates a regulative discourse developed in the nineteenth century, in advice books written by medical doctors for pregnant women and new mothers. Both the Victorian and the present-day texts play on feelings of guilt and inadequacy in order to con…
The Symbolic Annihilation of Mothers in Popular Culture: Single Father and the death of the mother
This article takes as its starting point the paradoxical representation of mothers in popular culture. On the one hand the mother is constructed as central to the physical and emotional development of the child; on the other, she is routinely rejected or elided, questioned, and vilified. One expression of this ambivalent attitude is the re-circulation of the trope of the dead mother. The trope, which ostensibly is employed to create sympathy for …
Sucking the Corrupte Mylke of an Infected Nurse: Regulating the Dangerous Maternal Body
Drawing on medieval medical encyclopaedias, early modern and Victorian advice books, as well as twentieth scientific advice to mothers, and linking them to present-day mothering discourse in the media, this article discusses cultural attitudes towards breast-milk and nursing mothers. The texts present a paradox in that while breast-milk is claimed as the best food for an infant, and mothers who choose not to nurse are vilified, it is simultaneous…
The Absent Mother in the Cultural Imagination
Post-Feminist Fatherhood and the Marginalization of the Mother in Cormac McCarthy's The Road
Critics have tended to dismiss feminist analyses of Cormac McCarthy's works as misguided, labelling investigations of potential narrative misogyny in his novels as irrelevant. In this article, the author argues that such investigations are, on the contrary, highly relevant in the current climate of mother-blaming. The author specifically explains how McCarthy’s 2006 dystopian novel The Road uses post-feminist fatherhood to valorize the father and…
Single Parents: Representations and Resistance in an International Context
Psychology (7 works) · Art (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Literature (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Gender, Feminism, and Media (4 works) · History (3 works) · Narrative (3 works) · Psychoanalysis (3 works)