Maternal Bodies
Redefining Motherhood in Early America
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4886023 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carolyn J Lawes (Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 106 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 754-755 |
| Publication date | 2019-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jaz560 |
| OpenAlex | W2997493891 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
In Maternal Bodies Nora Doyle examines representations of the maternal body between 1750 and 1850, and finds a disjuncture between cultural representations of motherhood and women's lived experiences. Portrayals of the maternal body in print culture, Doyle argues, “sought to refine the maternal body, and even make it disappear entirely” in favor of “a vision of motherhood ... defined by women's spiritual and emotional work” that was built upon class and race privilege (p. 5). At the same time, Doyle's analysis of what actual mothers did, as revealed in their diaries and letters, demonstrates considerable continuity and ambivalence. If the lively print culture of the 1830s insisted motherhood was a transcendent experience, the mothers coping with the nitty-gritty of morning sickness and breast-feeding understood only too well its corporeality. Thus, by the mid-nineteenth century, two competing visions characterized the idea of the maternal body: one created by print culture, the other by women's experiences as mothers
Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Art · Political science · Privilege (computing · Sociology · Vision · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2024 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |