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>Maternal matrix: Ethical and spiritual dynamics of mothers' subjectivity in contemporary American literature (Toni Morrison, Mary Gordon, Louise Erdrich).
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Maternal matrix: Ethical and spiritual dynamics of mothers' subjectivity in contemporary American literature (Toni Morrison, Mary Gordon, Louise Erdrich).
Until recently, mothers in fiction have received little attention except for their supporting role in children's development. In the last half of the twentieth century, more mothers have begun to write, reflecting in their fiction a rich range of maternal experience unseen in literature before. These spiritual and ethical dynamics have gone largely unremarked in the predominantly secular culture of literary criticism. In this project, I explore the ways mothering affects women's ethical and spiritual sensibilities and the ways a woman's moral and religious commitments shape her subjectivity and her maternal practice.; This study brings recent interest in the ethical and spiritual dimensions of fiction to the examination of mother characters in three contemporary American novels: Beloved, Men and Angels, and Love Medicine . The writers, Toni Morrison, Mary Gordon, and Louise Erdrich, are all mothers who draw on their own experience in creating their fictional mothers, and each writer builds on a different spiritual tradition. To contextualize the discussion, I provide a two-century survey of historical developments that have influenced the cultural understanding of motherhood, particularly as illustrated in fictional mothers. From interdisciplinary readings in philosophy, theology, psychology, and literary theory, I developed a matrix that structures the discussion of the rich subjectivity of mothers by focusing on formative ethical dilemmas that lead mothers to seek spiritual resources in their tradition in order to find healing and restore agency.; Weaving together a network of interdisciplinary ethical and spiritual factors proved a productive strategy for exploring the complex inner life of mothers. Fiction provides an effective source for probing the ways that ethical dilemmas in combination with a mother's spiritual tradition can bring healing strength—a process that helps her survive and thrive in the midst of her particular challenges. Beyond issues of gender and parental status, this critical matrix also suggests a new way to approach fiction in general. It offers the reader a larger awareness of the way ethical and spiritual dynamics are at work in narrative as well as in life—as fiction illuminates life's conundrums.
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