Writing Mothers and Daughters

Adalgisa Giorgio is Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies at the University of Bath.

• AcknowledgementsChapter 1. Mothers and Daughters in Western Europe: Mapping the TerritoryA. GiorgioChapter 2. Writing the Mother–Daughter Relationship: Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Literary CriticismA. GiorgioChapter 3. Towards a Female Symbolic: Re-Presenting Mothers and Daughters in Contemporary Spanish Narrative by WomenC. ArkinstallChapter 4. 'The Horror of the Unlived Life': Mother–Daughter Relationships in Contemporary Irish Women's FictionA. FogartyChapter 5. The Passion for the Mother: Conflicts and Idealisations in Contemporary Italian Narrative by WomenA. GiorgioChapter 6. Writing Mother–Daughter Relationality in the French ContextAlex HughesChapter 7. Bad Daughters and Unmotherly Mothers: The New Family Plot in the Contemporary English NovelP. SplendoreChapter 8. Power and Powerlessness: Mothers and Daughters in Postwar German and Austrian LiteratureC. WeedonNotes on ContributorsIndex

“…very useful volume [that] provides a valuable cross-cultural context for the study of the mother-daughter relationship in literature… [The editor’s] strong theoretical introduction also provides very useful statistics on European birth rates, abortion rates, social policies, family patterns and the ethics of reproductive technologies.”  ·  Journal of Romance Studies“... a selection of impressive, erudite, thoughtfully written essays by seven forward-thinking contributors ... Enhanced with an informed and informative introduction, [this book] offers thoughtful and thought-provoking discourses which are highly recommended for Literary Studies and Women’s Studies reference collections and reading lists.”  · Midwest Book Review"The book will prove valuable to students doing graduate work."  · Choice"... offers thoughtful and thought-provoking discourses which are highly recommended."  · Library Bookwatch"Attests to the explosion of women's writing across Western Europe and to the centrality of the mother-daughter plot ... The commonalities and the differences that emerge enable us to think not only about mothers and daughters but also about national literatures, and national feminist movements, in new ways. This book reinvigorates the enterprise of feminist literary criticism"  · Professor Marianne Hirsch, Dartmouth College"Contains fascinating close readings of the major European writers ... it will become a classic work of criticism, essential for all courses focusing on twentieth century writing"  · Professor Maggie Humm, Department of Cultural Studies, University of East London