In uncertain terms: mothering without guilt in Marie Darrieussecq’s 'Le Mal de mer' and Christine Angot’s 'Léonore, toujours'

Rye, Gill (2005) In uncertain terms: mothering without guilt in Marie Darrieussecq’s 'Le Mal de mer' and Christine Angot’s 'Léonore, toujours'. L'Esprit Createur, 45 (1). pp. 5-15. ISSN 0014-0767

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This article addresses the issue of maternal guilt, by focusing on contemporary French literature - 'Le Mal de mer' (1999) by Marie Darrieussecq and 'Léonore, toujours' (1994) by Christine Angot, in which mothers refuse to compromise their own needs. It argues that, in their respective expressions of what is arguably guilt-free mothering, both texts using uncertainty tempt the readers’ judgement of the mothers’ mothering, on the one hand, while, on the other, they work against the formulation of a negative judgement. Thus they confront readers with their own prejudices and invite a productive interrogation of mothering itself.

Item Type	Article
Additional Information	This is a post-peer-reviewed, pre-copyedited version of the article originally published in 'A New Generation: Sex, Gender and Creativity in Contemporary Women’s Writing in French', ed. Gill Rye, special issue of L’Esprit Créateur 45.1 (Spring 2005), pp.5-15; an extended and further developed version subsequently appeared as a chapter in Gill Rye, Narratives of Mothering: Women’s Writing in Contemporary France (Newark DE: University of Delaware Press, 2009).
Keywords	maternal guilt, narratives of mothering, Christine Angot, Marie Darrieussecq, uncertainty in literature
Subjects	Culture, Language & Literature
Divisions	Institute of Modern Languages Research Institute of Modern Languages Research > Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women's Writing
Date Deposited	08 Sep 2011 13:43
Last Modified	05 Aug 2024 18:39