Re-Envisioning the Freudian Mother in Southern Literature

(Hardback)

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Through the lens of a feminist psychoanalytic framework, Re-Envisioning the Freudian Mother in Southern Literature re-evaluates the mother-child dynamic as one far more complicated than what is present in typical psychoanalytic readings.

Under this framework, Jill Goad explores the figure of the mother through Margaret Mitchells Gone with the Wind, William Faulkners Light in August, Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie, Eudora Weltys The Golden Apples, Natasha Tretheweys Native Guard and other poems, and Jesmyn Wards Sing, Unburied, Sing. The author argues that the Freudian concept of castration occurring at birth rather than a childs early years, contrasting the Freudian-influenced theorists dominate the notion of psychoanalysis in literature. Goad's approach to analyzing mothers and the consequences of birth classifies mother figures as powerful and complex instead of weak, frightening, or two-dimensional. Re-Envisioning the Freudian Mother in Southern Literature encourages a complete re-evaluation of the mother as one who gives birth to selfhood and subjectivity as opposed to a lack of agency.

Reviews

Re-Envisioning the Freudian Mother in Southern Literature studies an impressive array of 20th and 21st century southern literary texts. By employing a feminist revision of Freuds theory of the mother, Jill Goad offers a persuasive reading of the maternal figure in these works as powerful and complex. The study both recovers silent characters and reveals the complexity of mother-child relationships from the mothers perspectives. With the connective thread of motherhood, Goads book contains finely textured analyses, helpful insights into characters, and a new lens to think about literature. * Sarah Gilbreath Ford, Professor of American literature, Baylor University, USA *

Author Bio

Jill Goad is Associate Professor of English at Shorter University.