Böcker av Andrea O'Reilly

Dr. Andrea O' Reilly is internationally recognized as the founder of Motherhood Studies (2006) and its subfield Maternal Theory (2007), and creator of the concept of Matricentric Feminism, a feminism for and about mothers (2016) and Matricritics, a literary theory and practice for a reading of mother-focused texts (2021). With this collection O' Reilly continues the conversation on the meaning and nature of motherhood initiated by Adrienne Rich in Of Woman Born close to fifty years ago. In In (M)other Words, O' Reilly shares 25 of her chapters and articles published between 2009-2024 to examine the oppressive and empowering dimensions of mothering and to explore motherhood as institution, experience, subjectivity, and empowerment. The collection considers the central themes and theories of motherhood studies including normative motherhood, feminist mothering, maternal regret, matricentric pedagogy, young mothers, academic motherhood, matricentric feminism, matricritics, motherhood and feminism, the motherhood memoir, the twenty-first-century motherhood movement, mothers and daughters, mothers and sons, pandemic mothering, and the motherline.

This collection explores the concept of the Missing Mother from two inter-related standpoints: the mother as absent in society and the mother as absent in a woman's selfhood. The first perspective considers why and how the mother/mothering is disregarded, discounted, or dismissed in art, literature, culture, policy, and law while the second perspective explores why and how a woman has marginalized, lost, forgotten, forfeited, or abandoned her individual maternal identity. Whether it is society that erases the maternal or a woman who forsakes it, the aim of this collection is to consider the why, how, what, who, and where of the mechanics of missing mother in both society and self. This collection considers reasons for this disavowal and disappearance of the maternal and shows how mothers can and do resist to recover and reclaim the maternal in society and self. Overall, this collection seeks to uncover and reveal the mother so marginalized and maligned in and by patriarchal culture and to show how women may find the missing mother in society and self and achieve empowerment in doing so.

Matricentric feminism seeks to make motherhood the business of feminism by positioning mothers' needs and concerns as the starting point for a theory and politic on and for the empowerment of women as mothers. Based on the conviction that mothering is a verb, it understands that becoming and being a mother is not limited to biological mothers or cisgender women but rather to anyone who does the work of mothering as a central part of their life. The Mother Wave, the first-ever book on the topic, compellingly explores how mothers need a matricentric mode of feminism organized from and for their particular identity and work as mothers, and because mothers remain disempowered despite sixty years of feminism. The anthology makes visible the power of matricentric feminism as it is theorized, enacted, and represented to realize and achieve the subversive potential of mothers and their contributions to feminist theory and activism. Contributors share the impact and influence of matricentric feminism on families and children, culture, art/literature, education, public policy, social media, and workplace practices through personal reflections, scholarly essays, memoir, creative non-fiction

"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."

A central aim of motherhood studies is to examine and theorize normative motherhood. Where does it come from? What are its defining features and demands? How does it work as a regulatory discourse and practice across differences of age, class, race, ability, sexuality, and region? What is the impact of normative motherhood on women's lives? What does an intersectional analysis of normative motherhood reveal? How is normative motherhood reflected and enacted in public policy, workplace practices, family arrangements and so on? How is normative motherhood represented and resisted in literature, art, photography, and film? How do or may women resist normative motherhood? This collection explores these questions of normative motherhood under three interrelated topics: Regulations, Representations, and Reclamations.

Examines the meaning and practice of mothering/motherhood from a multitude of maternal perspectives. Each chapter provides background and context, examines the challenges and possibilities of mothering/motherhood for each group of mothers and considers directions for future research.