Trauma and Motherhood in Contemporary Literature and Culture

"A smart, innovative, and robust collection that offers a unique and important contribution to Motherhood Studies in its emphasis on trauma [...] an important and emergent subfield of motherhood studies and one yet to be represented or developed through an edited collection." --Andrea O'Reilly, Professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, York University, Canada "This volume breaks new ground by using trauma studies to shed light on certain less-studied experiences of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood." --Valerie Heffernan, Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies and Head of the Maynooth University School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Ireland Trauma and Motherhood in Contemporary Literature and Culture repositions motherhood studies through the lens of trauma theory by exploring new challenges surrounding conception, pregnancy, and postpartum experiences. Chapters investigate nine case studies of motherhood trauma and recovery in literature and culture from the last twenty years by exploring their emotional consequences through the lens of trauma, resilience, and "working through" theories. Contributions engage with a transnational corpus drawn from the five continents and span topics as rarely discussed as pregnancy denial, surrogacy, voluntary or involuntary childlessness, racism and motherhood, carceral mothering practices, surrogacy, IVF, artificial wombs, and mothering through war, genocide, and migration. Accompanied by an online creative supplement, this volume deals with silenced aspects of embodied motherhood while enhancing a better understanding of the cathartic effects of storytelling. Laura Lazzari is a Scientific Collaborator at the Sasso Corbaro Foundation for the Medical Humanities, Switzerland, and a Research Scholar at the Catholic University of America, USA. She specializes in Motherhood Studies and the Medical Humanities and has published extensively on women's writing in the Italian-speaking world. Nathalie Ségeral is Lecturer in French at the University of Sydney, Australia, and Associate Professor of French at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, USA. She specializes in Holocaust, genocide, memory and feminist studies, trauma theory, and the Francophone South Pacific. Acknowledgments 5 Contents 7 Notes on Contributors 9 Trauma and Recovery: New Challenges to Motherhood in Contemporary Literature and Culture 13 Works Cited 21 Part I: Pregnancy, Childbirth and Trauma 23 Understanding the Trauma of Pervasive Pregnancy Denial in L’enfant que je n’attendais pas 24 The Problematics of Representing Denied Pregnancy 24 Denied Pregnancy and French and Francophone Film 25 L’enfant que je n’attendais pas as Case Study 26 Defining Pregnancy Denial 28 Individual and Collective Denial 31 Maternal Trauma 34 Extended Trauma 36 Judicial Trauma 38 Recovery Through Support and Education 39 Works Cited 40 Filmography 41 Salvaging the Bones Means Fighting for Reproductive Justice: Jesmyn Ward’s Literary Representations of the Trauma Produced by Attacks on Reproductive Rights, Comprehensive Sex Education, and Access to Maternal Health Care 42 Salvaging the Bones Means Mourning Maternal Mortality 46 Salvaging the Bones Means Fighting for Access to Reproductive Health Care and Sex Education 53 Salvaging the Bones Means Creating Safe Environments for Black Families 61 Works Cited 66 Social Trauma and the Anti-Maternal Body in Diane a les épaules 69 Surrogacy: The French Cultural Context 71 Maternity in France: A Conservative Revolution 74 Representing Surrogacy in France 77 Diane as Surrogate “Mother” 81 Diane as a “Pregnant Partner” 85 Diane and “her” Child 90 Conclusion 92 Works Cited 92 Filmography 93 Part II: Trauma and Disrupted Mother-Child Bonds 94 Trauma Behind Bars: Maternal Dilemma in Rossella Schillaci’s Ninna nanna prigioniera 95 Works Cited 110 Filmography 111 “Pour dire la souffrance des innocents?” Problematics of the Madonna-Son Trope in Representing Trauma in Philippe Aractingi’s Under the Bombs and Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum 113 The Mother and Son Trope and the Discourse of “Women and Children” 114 Under the Bombs 117 Capernaum 122 Works Cited 134 Filmography 136 Traumatic Memory and Narrative Healing in Contemporary Diasporic Chinese British Women’s Writing 137 Introduction 137 The Agony of Motherhood: Traumatic Memories and Haunting Grief 142 The Growing Pains of a Daughter 143 To Understand Motherhood: From a Daughter to a Mother 145 To Resume the Lost Memories: The Pain in History 148 Deprived of Motherhood: Trauma of Patriarchy and Policy 152 Rural Patriarchy, Son Preference, and Female Infanticide 152 The One-Child Policy 158 The Chinese Orphanages and Adoption System 160 Conclusion 164 Works Cited 166 Part III: New Challenges with ART 168 Tragedy, In Vitro: The Function of Reproductive Science in Simon Stone’s Adaptation of Yerma 169 Works Cited 189 “I have an enterprise:” Transnational Surrogacy, Neoliberal Repropreneurship, and the Potential Trauma of Clinical Labor in Zippi Brand Frank’s Google Baby 190 Entrepreneurship: A Theoretical Framework 192 Reproductive Entrepreneurship 195 A Close Viewing of Reproductive Entrepreneurship in Google Baby 201 Conclusion 213 Works Cited 215 Filmography 217 No Trauma for Artificial Women: Monstrous, Cybernetics, and Anomalous Mothers in Current Latin American Science Fiction 218 Origins 220 The Influence of Feminist Discourse 224 Monstrous Women 227 Anomalous Mothers 231 Conclusion: Eva Reconfigured 237 Works Cited 240 Index 243 "A smart, innovative, and robust collection that offers a unique and important contribution to Motherhood Studies in its emphasis on trauma [...] an important and emergent subfield of motherhood studies and one yet to be represented or developed through an edited collection." --Andrea O'Reilly, Professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, York University, Canada "This volume breaks new ground by using trauma studies to shed light on certain less-studied experiences of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood." --Valerie Heffernan, Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies and Head of the Maynooth University School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Ireland Trauma and Motherhood in Contemporary Literature and Culture repositions motherhood studies through the lens of trauma theory by exploring new challenges surrounding conception, pregnancy, and postpartum experiences. Chapters investigate nine case studies of motherhood trauma and recovery in literature and culture from the last twenty years by exploring their emotional consequences through the lens of trauma, resilience, and "working through" theories. Contributions engage with a transnational corpus drawn from the five continents and span topics as rarely discussed as pregnancy denial, surrogacy, voluntary or involuntary childlessness, racism and motherhood, carceral mothering practices, surrogacy, IVF, artificial wombs, and mothering through war, genocide, and migration. Accompanied by an online creative supplement, this volume deals with silenced aspects of embodied motherhood while enhancing a better understanding of the cathartic effects of storytelling. Laura Lazzari is a Scientific Collaborator at the Sasso Corbaro Foundation for the Medical Humanities, Switzerland, and a Research Scholar at the Catholic University of America, USA. She specializes in Motherhood Studies and the Medical Humanities and has published extensively on women's writing in the Italian-speaking world. Nathalie Ségeral is Lecturer in French at the University of Sydney, Australia, and Associate Professor of French at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, USA. She specializes in Holocaust, genocide, memory and feminist studies, trauma theory, and the Francophone South Pacific.