English 218 - Monstrous Mothers
MONSTROUS MOTHERS
Spring
2021
01
4.00
Lily Gurton-Wachter; Jina Kim
TTh 01:40-02:55
Smith College
30293-S21
REMOTE
lgurtonwachter@smith.edu; jbkim@smith.edu
This course will explore the monstrosity of motherhood - the fear, disgust, alienation, and confusion of
both being a mother and having one. We will discuss literary and cinematic representations of mothers
as absent, distant, cruel, ambivalent, irresponsible, and deviant, and consider the ways we have been
taught to think of motherhood both as a self-sacrifice and as necessary. But we will also seek new models of care, love, and attachment that are dependent neither on the sacrifice of one’s self nor on biological reproduction and that recast mothering as potentially revolutionary. (E)
both being a mother and having one. We will discuss literary and cinematic representations of mothers
as absent, distant, cruel, ambivalent, irresponsible, and deviant, and consider the ways we have been
taught to think of motherhood both as a self-sacrifice and as necessary. But we will also seek new models of care, love, and attachment that are dependent neither on the sacrifice of one’s self nor on biological reproduction and that recast mothering as potentially revolutionary. (E)