Techniques of Identity Talk in Reentering Mothers’ Self-Narratives

(M)othering and Redemption Narratives

Bibliographic Data

ID12809665
AuthorsStacy De Coster (0000-0003-1889-2679, North Carolina State University, corresponding author), Karen Heimer (0000-0002-0530-2062, University of Iowa)
Year2020
Volume17
Issue1
Pages3-25
Publication date2020-12-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Criminology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1557-0851 • E-ISSN: 1557-086X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1557085120983444
OpenAlexW3114567142
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited43

We examine how incarcerated women introduced themselves to a reentry program focused on reuniting them with their children. To communicate maternal worthiness, the women did not discuss their own past mothering but focused instead on their mothers’ mothering and on their future mothering. Our analysis uncovers two forms of identity talk women used to distance themselves from societal presumptions about their “bad” mothering: discussing shortcomings of their mothers in a process we call defensive (m)othering, and focusing on futures as good mothers through redemptive storytelling. These strategies reveal how women attempt to manage identities within structural, cultural, and situational constraints

Aesthetics · Futures contract · Identity (music · Narrative · Situational ethics · Sociology · Storytelling · Child Abuse and Trauma · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Gender Studies · Homelessness and Social Issues · Psychology · Social Psychology

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