1. Objectifs

Intentions :
This book «seeks to make sense of and bring forth strategies of representation of failing motherhood in Québec, Ontario, New England, and California at the turn of the twenty-first century. […] As the title of this project suggests, [authors] address the significant impact of new technologies and social media vis-à-vis motherhood, but [it necessary to] clarify that the title Horrible Mothers is above all intended to be ironic, especially as every chapter aims to deconstruct such judgmental and limiting rhetoric and underscores the empowering potential behind each maternal experience.» (p. 4)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
This book addresses a corpus of texts and films across Francophone North America range from the 1990s to 2015.

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

«This collection is not intended to provide an exhaustive survey of all the horrible mother figures in francophone North America; instead, it is a contribution to ongoing developments in the field of feminist, queer, and francophone (literary and cinematographic) studies, providing an account of post-1990s and contemporary works on the subject. […] Nevertheless, the diversity of geographies, histories, and portrayals in this collaborative project manages to show the difficulty in attaining or maintaining maternal perfection, sometimes with the accompanying trauma or fear of failure. Horrible Mothers, however, provides a space for failing more or less successfully, for voicing anxieties, rejections, regrets, and for offering alternatives. This volume rejects the belief that “success happens to good people and failure is just a consequence of a bad attitude” […]. In doing so, this project proves unapologetically committed to denouncing lasting clichés, forms of prejudice, and misrepresentations. Horrible Mothers is an acte engagé in line with Geoffroy de Lagasnerie’s recent philosophical reflections on systemic violence and academia, and our duty is to reject complicity and to resist and oppose existing domination, exploitation, and oppression at large.» (p. 13-14) Furthermore, these following subjects related to motherhood are discussed in the book: the matrophobia, the role of mother in the French-Canadian immigration, the voluntary childlessness and the representation of mothers in Quebec cinema.

Les textes suivants font l’objet d’une fiche dans Famili@:

- Henry-Tierney, Pauline, «The Whore and Her Mother: Exploring Matrophobia in Nelly Arcan’s Putain»
- Ray, Chelsea, «“I’m Not the Virgin Mary”: Rebellious Motherhood in Grégoire Chabot’s “A Life Lost»
- Dewards, Nathalie, «Lucie Joubert’s Ironic Rejection of Motherhood in L’envers du landau»
- Ransom, Amy J., «Forgiving the Horrible Mother: Children’s Needs and Women’s Desires in Twenty-First-Century Québécois Film»
- Bourdeau, Loïc, «Politics and Motherhood in Xavier Dolan’s J’ai tué ma mère and Mommy»