Maternal Belongings and the Question of 'Home' in Mary Morrissy's 'Mother of Pearl
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4367555 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sinead Mcdermott (University of Limerick, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 263-282 |
| Publication date | 2003-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Feminist Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1464-7001 • E-ISSN: 1741-2773 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14647001030043002 |
| OpenAlex | W1990119517 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 16 |
This essay addresses the relationship between home, belonging and the maternal in feminist theory and fiction. Feminist discourse isoften typified by its critique of home: analysing the gendered assumptions underlying the depiction of home as nurturing, or exposing the regressive and essentialist connotations of the search for safe homes. A number of recent feminist theorists (Probyn, Bammer, Young) have, however, pointed to thepersistence of 'retrograde' desires for safety and belonging, particularly in an era of widespread dislocations. At the same time, feminist critics such as Roberta Rubenstein have re-invoked the contested relationship between home and the maternal by arguing that the desire for home speaks to our earliest needs for security: a desire that ultimately maps on to a longing for the (idealized) mother as the 'original safe home' (Rubenstein, 2001). This essay draws upon the work of Rubenstein, Bammer and Young in order to examine the relationship between home and the maternal in a recent Irish novel, Mary Morrissy's Mother of Pearl. The plot of this novel, dealing with the events surrounding an incident of baby snatching, suggests both the persistence of (the maternal) home as a desire and the impossibility of identifying an original or authentic maternal/home. By exploring how the protagonists of this novel negotiate the demands and appeals of home and motherhood, this essay will ask to what extent it may be possible for feminism to recuperate, or re-envision, the maternal/home as utopian ideal
Depiction · Epistemology · Essentialism · Feminism · Feminist theory · Impossibility · Irish · Literature · Negotiation · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Homelessness and Social Issues · Irish and British Studies · Law · Philosophy
The acoustic mirror
The politics of home
Writing women and space
Intersecting Voices
Resident Alien
Home Matters
Deterritorializations
Devolving Identities
Longings and belongings — gendered spatialities of Irishness
Eccentric Subjects
Feminist Fiction and the Uses of Memory
Memory, Nostalgia, and Gender in A Thousand Acres
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |