Mother countries, motherlands, and mother love: Representations of motherhood in twentieth-century Caribbean women\u27s literature

Like African American women, African Caribbean women have been influenced by their migratory experiences--both forced and voluntary--and by slavery\u27s staggering brutality. In addition, however, they have also been profoundly shaped by the colonial system and regional nationalist movements that burgeoned in the twentieth century. Throughout the history of territorial acquisitions, European imperial powers linked themselves to the image of motherhood by referring to their nations as mother country. In the early twentieth century, Caribbean revolutionaries decried this ideology and recast the maternal image by adopting the notion of their islands as motherlands and/or urging for reconnections to Mother Africa. My dissertation is concerned with how motherhood as a material fact has been lost through this ideological contestation. I argue that despite the fact that motherhood is incorporated into the everyday lives of most Caribbean women, women writers cannot easily dissociate their own representations of motherhood from the colonial and patriarchal overlay. The result is a literature burdened by the fragmentation of the relationships between mothers and their children. I explore the fraught notion of inescapable bonds to mothers, including the romanticized bonds to the motherlands of Africa and the Caribbean islands

Mother countries, motherlands, and mother love: Representations of motherhood in twentieth-century Caribbean women\u27s literature

Like African American women, African Caribbean women have been influenced by their migratory experiences--both forced and voluntary--and by slavery\u27s staggering brutality. In addition, however, they have also been profoundly shaped by the colonial system and regional nationalist movements that burgeoned in the twentieth century. Throughout the history of territorial acquisitions, European imperial powers linked themselves to the image of motherhood by referring to their nations as mother country. In the early twentieth century, Caribbean revolutionaries decried this ideology and recast the maternal image by adopting the notion of their islands as motherlands and/or urging for reconnections to Mother Africa. My dissertation is concerned with how motherhood as a material fact has been lost through this ideological contestation. I argue that despite the fact that motherhood is incorporated into the everyday lives of most Caribbean women, women writers cannot easily dissociate their own representations of motherhood from the colonial and patriarchal overlay. The result is a literature burdened by the fragmentation of the relationships between mothers and their children. I explore the fraught notion of inescapable bonds to mothers, including the romanticized bonds to the motherlands of Africa and the Caribbean islands

Introduction – Literature and Music in the Americas

Anatol GL, Raussert W. Introduction – Literature and Music in the Americas. In: Raussert W, Anatol GL, Thies S, Corona Berkin S, Lozano JC, eds. The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas. 1st Edition. London/New York: Routledge; 2020: 17-22

Slave Narratives

Raussert W, Anatol GL, Michael J. Slave Narratives. In: Raussert W, Anatol GL, Thies S, Corona Berkin S, Lozano JC, eds. The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas. 1st Edition. London/New York: Routledge; 2020: 226-238

The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas

Raussert W, Anatol GL, Thies S, Corona Berkin S, Lozano JC, eds. The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas . 1st Edition. London/New York: Routledge; 2020.Exploring the culture and media of the Americas, this handbook places particular emphasis on collective and intertwined experiences and focuses on the transnational or hemispheric dimensions of cultural flows and geocultural imaginaries that shape the literature, arts, media and other cultural expressions in the Americas. The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas charts the pervasive, asymmetrical flows of cultural products and capital and their importance in the development of the Americas. The volume offers a comprehensive understanding of how inter-American communication is constituted, framed and structured, and covers the artistic and political dimensions that have shaped literature, art and popular culture in the region. Forty-six chapters cover a range of inter-American key concepts and dynamics, divided into two parts: 1. Literature and Music deals with inter-American entanglements of artistic expressions in the Western Hemisphere, including music, dance, literary genres and developments. 2. Media and Visual Cultures explores the inter-American dimension of media production in the hemisphere, including cinema and television, photography and art, journalism, radio, digital culture and issues such as freedom of expression and intellectual property. This multidisciplinary approach will be of interest to a broad array of academic scholars and students in history, sociology, political science; and cultural, postcolonial, gender, literary, globalization and media studies

Muralism

Raussert W. Muralism . In: Raussert W, Anatol GL, Thies S, Corona Berkin S, Lozano JC, eds. The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas. 1st Edition. London/New York: Routledge; 2020: 402-413

Travel Writing

Haas A. Travel Writing. In: Raussert W, Anatol GL, Thies S, Corona Berkin S, Lozano JC, eds. The Routledge Handbook to Culture and Media of the Americas. London: Routledge; 2020: 252-260

General introduction

Kaltmeier O. General introduction. In: Raussert W, Anatol GL, Thies S, Berkin SC, Lozano JC, eds. The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas. Abingdon: Routledge; 2020: 1-14

The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas

Luz Angélica Kirschner and Miriam Brandel are contributing co-authors, Migrant Literature” pages 147-155. Book Description: Exploring the culture and media of the Americas, this handbook places particular emphasis on collective and intertwined experiences and focuses on the transnational or hemispheric dimensions of cultural flows and geocultural imaginaries that shape the literature, arts, media and other cultural expressions in the Americas. The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas charts the pervasive, asymmetrical flows of cultural products and capital and their importance in the development of the Americas. The volume offers a comprehensive understanding of how inter-American communication is constituted, framed and structured, and covers the artistic and political dimensions that have shaped literature, art and popular culture in the region. Forty-six chapters cover a range of inter-American key concepts and dynamics, divided into two parts: Literature and Music deals with inter-American entanglements of artistic expressions in the Western Hemisphere, including music, dance, literary genres and developments. Media and Visual Cultures explores the inter-American dimension of media production in the hemisphere, including cinema and television, photography and art, journalism, radio, digital culture and issues such as freedom of expression and intellectual property. This multidisciplinary approach will be of interest to a broad array of academic scholars and students in history, sociology, political science; and cultural, postcolonial, gender, literary, globalization and media studies.https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/mlgs_book/1014/thumbnail.jp

Modernism and postmodernisms

Raussert W, Lantz T, Michael J. Modernism and postmodernisms . In: Raussert W, Anatol GL, Thies S, Corona Berkin S, Lozano JC, eds. The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas . 1st Edition. London/New York: Routledge; 2020: 156-169