The power and the passion : representations of single motherhood in contemporary Australian literature

Jane Scerri

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper discusses the often vilified yet increasing prevalence of single-mothers and their representation in contemporary Australian literature. Historically, single motherhood has signalled disadvantage and adversity for both mothers and their children. However, as identity and gender politics since the 1990s have become so hotly contested and since notions of what ‘a family’ means are changing – especially since the recent legalisation of gay marriage in many states and countries – single motherhood per se, provides a fertile space for feminist exploration. As a socially constructed site, single motherhood represents fluidity, one in which women can reclaim power, creativity and sexuality outside of normative-nuclear-family dominance. By investigating the fictive worlds of single mother protagonists in Caddie (Edmonds, 1953), Monkey Grip (Garner, 1977), Honour and Other People’s Children (Garner, 1980) and Camille’s Bread (Lohrey, 1995), this paper will reflect on how single mothers and their lived experiences have been depicted in contemporary Australian literature. As single mothers are doubly Othered, 1 first by nature of their sex, and second by their dislocation from the normative family, I draw on the theories of seminal feminist philosophers, Simone de Beauvoir and Luce Irigaray as well as Australian feminist historians and literary critics including Anne Summers, Jill Julius Matthews, Kerryn Goldsworthy and Bronwyn Levy. Despite the gains of second wave feminism and the rise in SMC (single mothers by choice), the paper will contest that ‘the family’ as an ideological construct together with the predominance of phallogocentric logic continues to inhibit single mothers’ rights, equality and agency. It will also tease out the great contradiction of single motherhood: that patriarchy both enforces gendered and repressive values upon single mothers and their opportunities for transcendence, yet as a liminal, ‘in-between’ space, single motherhood represents an escape; a chance for re-imagination.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages13
JournalGlobal Media Journal: Australian Edition
Volume14
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Keywords

  • Australian literature
  • single mothers
  • motherhood in literature
  • children

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