Annabella’s Blog Post 1 – Motherhood and culture

by Correa-Maynard 1 Comment

“Loneliness, unshared grief, and guilt often led to prolonged melancholy or mental breakdown.

If the frontier…

offered (some) women

a greater equality and independence, and the

chance

to break out of more traditional roles, it also, ironically, deprived many of the emotional support and intimacy of female community; it

tore them from their mothers.”

I rearranged a portion of the extensive paragraph Rich wrote in “Of Woman Born” with the intention of allowing openness to a culture of mothers, who would not have been previously allowed to share in the loneliness and grief because of Rich’s original white European perspective. I intentionally chose to break up lines from the paragraph, such as “if the frontier” to show that the frontier is borderless and can extend to other mothers and other cultures. Additionally, I decided to leave “tore them from their mothers” as the final line because of the literal and figurative implications of the phrase. Where do we see that through our own experiences, but also where have we seen that throughout history? Essentially, I felt that this version serves as a historical reference, but also an openness to contemporary motherhood.

I was particularly struck by this quote from Adrienne Rich’s “Of Woman Born: Motherhood and Daughterhood” not only because of what it stated, but also because of what it did not state. I was able to resonate with Rich’s opening words regarding the adoration she had for her mother’s body as a sort of mirroring of her own. However, Rich speaks from a white, mostly European cultural connection toward motherhood – one that I, as an Afro-Latina, do not connect to. I found that this cultural disconnect was apparent, particularly on page 234 when Rich describes the immigrant European diaspora mother experience as one riddled with loneliness and isolation.

I understand Rich’s contributions to feminist theory were radical at the time – considering the fact that she came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s – but I feel as though the diaspora of non-European cultures is non-existent. What about the narratives of motherhood that existed during the slave trade? What about the narrative of motherhood that existed during mass genocides, essentially eradicating generations of motherly history? What about the narratives of mothers who were born without ever knowing their mothers?

Comment ( 1 )

  1. Kim Hall
    Annabella, I love your choice of quote and what you did with it. This quote-- which for Rich speaks to a certain gendered notion of independence and freedom is, as you indicate, very much caught up in a kind of American exceptionalism that excludes the forced labor of slavery and native genocide. You are not alone in your critique of Rich, but I wonder if this class can read somewhat with the generosity of Shange---who was certainly aware of the phenomenon you list at the end of the post and yet still found something that reaches across differences. You start with that, but then spend more time on Rich's faults (also, I should say that we only read one chapter of a book that does in fact reference both slavery and Jewish genocide, so it is not like Rich is unaware of these issues), rather than drawing out what is usable for your own purposes. . iIs there something in Rich that prevents us from speaking to other conditions? To what degree do we slash to eliminate and to what degree do we slash to make space for new growth?

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