Feminism and the Mother in 20th Century Québécois Literature
Date
2019-04-27
Authors
Porteous, Isabelle
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Abstract
This study seeks to draw a link between a series of literary characters in a maternal or
matriarchal role, within the context of feminine voice and second- and third-wave feminist
theory. In seeking out the maternal voice, this study highlights four categories of mother-stories: stories of the "mystical woman," which explore the wise-woman character trope, matriarchal stories that highlight a female-centric family structure, lost-mother stories in which the protagonist is on a quest of identity, and mother-child stories told from the child's point of view. By selecting a corpus of exclusively female authors dealing with the topic of motherhood in four varied ways, this study is able to analyse the perceptions of the role of the mother through the eyes of these women who were, in the act of writing these texts, actively participating in the feminist discourses of their time.
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Comparative Literature, Feminism, Québécois Literature, Motherhood, French, Literature, Québec, 20th Century Literature