Motherhood and Representation: The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama

Description

From nineteenth century novels to films in the 1990s, American culture abounds with the images of white, middle-class mothers. Kaplan looks at how they appear in the psychoanalytic, historical and cultural spheres. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of illustrations Preface Acknowledgements Part I History and theory discourses 1 INTRODUCTION 2 THE HISTORICAL SPHERE: Motherhood as institution and social discourse 3 THE PSYCHOANALYTIC SPHERE AND MOTHERHOOD DISCOURSE Part II Motherhood and fictional representation 4 WOMEN'S WRITING, MELODRAMA AND FILM 5 THE MATERNAL MELODRAMA: THE SACRIFICE PARADIGM Ellen Wood's East Lynne and its play and film versions 6 THE MATERNAL MELODRAMA: THE "PHALLIC" MOTHER PARADIGM Now Voyager (1942) and Marnie (1964) 7 THE "RESISTING" TEXT WITHIN THE PATRIARCHAL "FEMININE": Nineteenth-century women's writing and the "maternal woman's film" in the silent era: Uncle Tom's Cabin; Herland; The Blot; The Crowd; Applause 8 THE "RESISTING" MATERNAL WOMAN'S FILM 1930–60. Arzner's Christopher Strong and Craig's Wife; Imitation of Life (1934 and 1959); Stella Dallas (1937); select Sirk films 9 SEX, WORK AND MOTHER/FATHERHOOD: Consumerism, science and reproductive technologies in the postmodern era Notes Bibliography Names index Subject index