Narratives of Motherhood and Mothering in Fiction and Life Writing

Helena Wahlström Henriksson is Professor of Gender Studies and Associate Professor of American Literature, and currently the Director of the Uppsala University Centre for Gender Research, at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research interests include feminist cultural studies, life-writing, film and other media, studies of family and kinship, single parents, and parenting over the life course.Anna Williams is Professor of Literature at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research interests include literature and gender, working class literature, and biography.Margaretha Fahlgren is Professor Emerita of Literature at Uppsala University, Sweden. Formerly, she served as Director and Research Director of the Uppsala University Centre for Gender Research. Her research interests range from classic Swedish literature to popular culture.

• 1. Ambivalent Narratives of Motherhood and Mothering: From Normal and Natural to Not-at-all.- 2. One Hand Clapping: The Loneliness of Motherhood in Lucia Berlin’s “Tiger Bites”.- 3. “their mothers, and their fathers, and everyone in between”: Queering Motherhood in Trans Parent Memoirs by Jennifer Finney Boylan and Trystan Reese.- 4. Struggling to Become a Mother: Literary Representations of Involuntary Childlessness.- 5. Orality/Aurality and Voice of the Voiceless Mother in Abla Farhoud’s Happiness Has a Slippery Tail.- 6. From Survivor to Im/migrant Motherhood and Beyond: Margit Silberstein’s Postmemorial Autobiography, Förintelsens Barn.- 7. The (M)other’s Voice: Representations of Motherhood in Contemporary Swiss Writing by Women.- 8. Contested Motherhood in Autobiographical Writing: Rachel Cusk and Sheila Heti.- 9. A Plea for Motherhood: Mothering and Writing in Contemporary Norwegian Literature.