This compelling and unique collection of critical and creative work
assesses for the first time cultural, literary, legal, and
historical representations and narratives about mothers who kill
and filicide. The idea of a mother killing her child to many
presents the greatest taboo, and the most disturbing and
distressing aspect of maternal experience. In Toni Morrison's 1987
novel Beloved, escaped slave mother Sethe addresses her daughter
Beloved whom she murdered out of desperation, in order to avoid her
returning to a life of slavery and sexual abuse. Sethe reflects,
"I'll explain to her, even though I don't have to. Why I did it.
How if I hadn't killed her she would have died and that is
something I could not bear to happen to her. When I explain it
she'll understand." This book goes beyond Morrison's widely known
literary portrayal, in order to investigate a range of other, less
known but no less challenging, examinations of maternal filicide.
Have mothers who kill inevitably been portrayed as monsters in
cultural representations? Or are there certain contexts that may
urge us to reevaluate maternal behavior? And how might we counter
the misogynist narratives surrounding maternal filicide which have
governed literary and historical accounts and affected legal
discourses? This wide-ranging and innovative volume examines the
complex issues of infanticide and mothers who kill from a broad,
interdisciplinary perspective, in order to counter the misogynist
cultural narratives that underpin prevailing stereotypes of
mothers. The book includes creative work, essays on crime fiction,
literature from across a range of historical periods, multicultural
and Global South perspectives, legal and historical accounts, and
more. Making an invaluable contribution to motherhood studies and
gender criticism, this book offers a rich insight into current and
cutting-edge research into this most troubling area of maternal
representation.
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