Janani Mothers Daughters Motherhood

This book brings together the writings of women from various walks of life–authors, artists, academics, and ordinary citizens–to present their experiences of being mothers and daughters. The complex emotional journeys detailed in the touching narratives are heartwarming and provocative. Dedicating this volume to the women who went before and the generations that are yet to come, the contributors abandon their public faces to provide humane, intimate, and compelling real-life narratives. The collection includes true stories on adoptive motherhood, step-mothering, and single-motherhood.

Autobiographical writings of various Indian women.

Family stories of the ties between mothers and daughters form the foundation of Mothers and Daughters: Complicated Connections Across Cultures. Nationally and internationally known feminist scholars frame, analyze, and explore mother-daughter bonds in this collection of essays. Cultures from around the world are mined for insights which reveal historical, generational, ethnic, political, religious, and social class differences. This book focuses on the tenacity of the connection between mothers and daughters, impediments to a strong connection, and practices of good communication. Mothers and Daughters will interest those studying communication, women's studies, psychology, sociology, anthropology, counseling, and cultural studies.

We are the first generation in recent history to not know if our children will have a better life than us. Over the past thirty years, the dream of upward mobility and stable and securely paid employment has dissipated. This collection draws together insights from the disciplines of cultural studies, literary theory, psychoanalysis, psychosocial studies, social policy and sociology, in order to explore the complex and contested status of “the family” under neoliberalism. At one end of the spectrum, the intensification of work and the normalisation of long-hours working culture have undermined the time and energy available for private family life. At the other end, the fantasy of the nuclear family as a potential “haven in a heartless world” is rapidly unravelling, supplanted with a hypercompetitive, neo-traditionalist, mobile, neoliberal family seeking to capitalise on the uneven spread of resources in order to maximise the futures of its own children. As neoliberalism has always been split between socio-economic realities and the expectations of where we “should” be, we are always living with the anxiety of being left behind and the hope that the best is yet to come. The chapters in this collection signal the troubles of the neoliberal family: in particular, the gulf between the practical conditions of family life and the formation of new fantasies. The volume addresses the neoliberal family in a range of contexts: from the domestic, reproductive and bio-political regulation of family life, the representations of the neoliberal family on television and across social media, to the negotiation of family dynamics in maternal memoirs. The work provides a much-needed corrective to the critical emphasis on the macrostructures of the neoliberal world.

This book presents an overview of heterogeneous and homogeneous exemplifications of the concept of motherhood from ancient times until the present day. It discusses the centrality of motherhood in women’s lives, and considers the ways in which the ideology of motherhood and the concept of ideal motherhood are manufactured. This is validated through analysis of various institutional structures of society, including archetypes, religion, and media. The first section of the book locates motherhood in its historical context, and rereads the myths surrounding it as overarching social constructs. The second part explores the different theories, which have developed around motherhood, in order to outline and understand the concept. The section also looks at the lived reality of motherhood.

The book looks at the impact that the idea and institution of nationhood have had on the constituents of India in the contemporary postcolonial period. It provides a critical analysis through a variety of perspectives––historical, philosophical, literary, and gendered, and locates the nation and its “discontents”, along with its nationalist agenda firmly within the context of the contemporary perceived modernity. The book also engages with the colonial legacy that the ‘nation’ had to endure for two hundred years. It discusses key themes such as nationalism in the contemporary Indian context, the concept of Hindutva, Islam nationalism, and queer nationalism. An important contribution, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of India studies, Indian politics, Third World studies, postcolonial studies, gender studies, nation studies, and history.

This collection explores how becoming and being a mother can be shaped by, and interconnected with, how mothers realize feminism and/or become feminists. Experiences of motherhood can involve unique discriminations and oppressions, as well as new challenges and possibilities. What may have been overlooked, tolerated, or perhaps even gone unnoticed before becoming a mother, can become overtly apparent or even unavoidable afterwards. Becoming a mother may also lead to a questioning of current feminist priorities and practices, and a recognition of the need for, or even demand for, a mother-centred mode of feminism. This anthology, separated into three sections &– &‘ Losing and Finding,' &‘ Challenging and Critiquing,' and, &‘ Connecting and Conversing' &– provides intersectionally sensitive and broad-ranging interdisciplinary insights into mothers' perceptions of, connection to, and realizations of, feminism. International contributors examine this complex topic through a wide variety of texts including personal and scholarly essays, creative non-fiction, letters and Q and A style discussion, poetry, art, and photography.

How can women live fully? If autonomy is critical for humans, why do women have little or no choice vis-à-vis motherhood? Do women know they have a choice, if they do? How 'free' are these choices in a context where the self is socially mired and deeply enmeshed into the familial? What are implications of motherhood on how human relatedness and belonging are defined? These questions underlie Amrita Nandy's remarkable research on motherhood as an institution, one that conflates 'woman' with 'mother' and 'personal' with 'political'. As the bedrock of human survival and an unchallenged norm of 'normal' female lives, motherhood expects and even compels women to be mothers—symbolic and corporeal. Even though the ideology of pronatalism and motherhood reinforce reproductive technology and vice versa, the care work of mothering suffers political neglect and economic devaluation. However, motherhood (and non-motherhood) is not just physiological. As the pivot to a web of heteronormative institutions (such as marriage and the family), motherhood bears an overwhelming and decisive influence on women's lives. Against the weight of traditional and contemporary histories, socio-political discourse and policies, this study explores how women, as embodiments of multiple identities, could live stigma-free, 'authentic' lives without having to abandon reproductive 'self'-determination. Published by Zubaan.