From Klein to Kristeva: Psychoanalytic Feminism and the Search for the "Good Enough" Mother - Couverture souple

Doane, Janice

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0472064339 ISBN 13 : 9780472064335

Editeur : The University of Michigan Press, 1993

Synopsis

Recent feminist and psychoanalytic accounts of mothering have been profoundly shaped by the work of Melanie Klein, D. W. Winnicott, Nancy Chodorow, and Julia Kristeva. Although their work spans many decades, these writers share the goal of understanding object relations, that is, the child's relation to internalized "objects" —most often the mother, as the child's first caretaker. Doane and Hodges chart the development of "mother-centered" psychoanalysis and its influence on feminist thought in a number of fields and show how the effort to elevate the importance of the mother has become implicated in the current effort to restrict possibilities for women to "opportunities" associated with hearth and home. The authors argue that discussions of the maternal role always exist within an ideological framework in which they are purveyed to particular groups at particular times. In our own historical moment, ideas of maternal propriety have been vigorously argued, as in custody battles, where experts debate whether or not individual women are "good enough" mothers. From Klein to Kristeva traces the ways in which object-relations accounts of mothering have worked to encourage the view that "good enough" mothers find "their whole self" at home. What does this view of mothering mean for working women? How does it help promote arguments that "fetal rights" are more important than a mother's own desires? By recovering the historial context of object-relations theory and closely attending to the language of important theorists, Doane and Hodges make visible the extraordinary influence of object relations on the discourses in many fields and demonstrate the power of psychological theory to shape both popular and academic discussions of maternal propriety.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Janice Doane is Associate Professor of English at St. Mary's College. Devon Hodges is Professor of English and American Studies at George Mason University. They are authors of Nostalgia and Sexual Difference: The Resistance to Contemporary Feminism.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: The University of Michigan Press
• Date d'édition: 1993
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0472064339
• ISBN 13: 9780472064335
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 112
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible