(M)Othering the Nation

...an imaginative and provocative anthology. (M)Othering the Nation sensibly avoids being limited by national boundaries and examines how the trope of motherhood is presented in a variety of cultures and national situations. The articles take the reader on an educational journey through discussions of gender ideology and representations of (m)othering and the Nation in writing from and about Mexico, Ireland, Sierra Leone, Communist Romania, the Soviet Union of the 1920s, Galicia, South...
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...an imaginative and provocative anthology. (M)Othering the Nation sensibly avoids being limited by national boundaries and examines how the trope of motherhood is presented in a variety of cultures and national situations. The articles take the reader on an educational journey through discussions of gender ideology and representations of (m)othering and the Nation in writing from and about Mexico, Ireland, Sierra Leone, Communist Romania, the Soviet Union of the 1920s, Galicia, South Africa. Its themes range from the 1950s USA and the Rosenbergs to the West German media and representations of those deemed female terrorists. An inter-national educational treat. Merle Collins, Professor of Comparative Literature and English, University of Maryland, College Park "In (M)Othering the Nation, Lisa Bernstein gives us a fascinating addition to studies of gender and nation. This wide ranging anthology provocatively addresses the ruptures in national allegories of "the mother," which reveal that real women's experiences are often banished to the margins in ideological representation. Adopting a global perspective that draws together a vast range of cultures--from medieval to modern, from the Americas to the Soviet Union, Europe and Africa--the book provides an incisive and richly detailed examination of the link between actual and allegorical mothers." Nandita Batra, Professor of English, University of Puerto Rico and Editor of Revista Atenea and Co-editor of essay anthologies: Transgression and Taboo, Narrating the Past, and This Watery World: Humans and the Sea.