WiSe 22/23: S-Culture-Gender-Media: Mothers
Cordula Lemke
Comments
Mothers tend to be seen as an epitome of otherness. In the works of Freud, woman is frightening as such. She is the Dark Continent where man is drawn by the promise of a return to the safety of the womb but, once there, is in danger of losing his manhood and his identity. Woman as Mother poses an even greater threat. Not only does her body change shape during pregnancy, turning her increasingly deformed otherness into the terrifying likeness of a monster which needs to be contained in the scientific discourse of medical technology, but to the Freudian child, Mother is forbidden territory. Belonging to another man, she is out of reach. Once the baby is born, the safe haven of the womb is guarded by the patriarchal figment of the vagina dentata making the longed for return impossible. Moreover, Mother wields power over life and death in her decision on whom she will suckle and nurture and who will be denied. In this seminar, we will be looking at concepts of motherhood and ask how questions of science, tradition or family structure influence and change these concepts in literature, television and film.
Texts:
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve
Taiye Selasi, Ghana Must Go
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Regular appointments