Theorizing mothering: a reading of selected African-American Women‘s texts

Abstract

This research explores the interconnectivity amongst Harriet Wilson‘s Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859), Harriet Jacobs‘ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), Alice Walker‘s The Color Purple (1982), and Toni Morrison‘s Beloved (1987) as they explore the indomitable nature of the maternal inclination which cuts across boundaries and time in African-American history. This exploration is a fraction of the discourses by African-American women in their attempt to portray black women who defy all odds in order to maintain their status as mothers. Most literature assumes motherhood as being interchangeable with mothering. However, African- American feminists assert that mothering is more empowering and without patriarchal influence for the woman than motherhood. This research focuses on the attempt by African-American women writers in narrating the mothering experiences of black women during slavery, flight and freedom. Employing psychoanalytic feminism and critical race theory, I attempt to trace the mothering nature of black women characters in the four novels to ascertain how the events in their lives represented or misrepresented their mothering disposition and how this influenced their families and their individuality. I conclude that ‗mothering and ‗motherhood‘ have various implications through the use of tropes such as imagery, characterisation, amongst others, for African-American women. Secondly, there exist a representation and misrepresentation in the mothering disposition of black women characters, and most importantly, this study attempts to provide a new terminology ‗motherhate‘.