From rant to revolution : the possibilities and limitations of motherhood memoir

Abstract

This thesis explores how autobiographical writing about motherhood in memoir form can be used to initiate powerful new understandings of the maternal experience, and of broader societal issues. Using a combination of exegetical and creative non-fiction forms, the project examines and seeks to mobilise the assertion made by Elizabeth Podnieks and Andrea O'Reilly that motherhood memoirs are "political, personal and creative narratives". Building from this, the exegesis considers the political and social power of recent motherhood memoir by engaging with some key sources of critique. In 2010 O'Reilly noted that despite its potential as a site of social change, the genre of motherhood memoir had lost its potency, with much popular motherhood memoir devolving into "rant" (210). She called on motherhood memoir writers to reconceive the form and take mother writing "from rant to revolution" (212). O'Reilly's critique of motherhood memoir is used as a springboard for analysis of a range of texts in the exegetical component of this thesis. Four Australian texts are assessed to consider diverse representations of empowered mothering written in innovative styles and to create a context for an original creative work, "Binding", also submitted as part of this thesis. These texts are Reaching One Thousand: A Story of Love, Motherhood and Autism (2012) by Rachel Robertson, all the beginnings: a queer autobiography of the body (2015) by Quinn Eades, Giulia Giuffre's Primavera or, The Time of Your Life (2011) and Things I Didn't Expect (When I Was Expecting) (2013) by Monica Dux. In addition, a close reading of Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts (2016) aims to illustrate how Nelson takes mother writing beyond the revolution that O'Reilly called for, as she challenges the binary distinctions and heteronormativity inherent in most mother writing and pushes against stylistic boundaries. I then examine the thematic and stylistic concerns of my manuscript, "Binding". The creative work, as a hybrid of creative and non-fictional modes, seeks to offer a new exploration of the way motherhood complicates a woman's life through an examination of core themes of agency, power and selfhood. It explores these themes through the interplay of the personal, the professional, and the socio-political. It aims to contribute a unique textual representation of mothering from the perspective of a single parent and a social worker in order to humanise the statistics related to domestic violence, divorce, gender inequity in the workplace, and the feminisation of poverty. The thesis aims to offer a new study that adds to the cultural and literary criticism of motherhood memoir and showcases the possibilities of motherhood memoir, particularly as a catalyst for social change.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	Ndong (Bantu)
Supervisor	Rachel Morley (Supervisor)