Price: $39.95
Page Count: 257
Publication Date: July 2022
ISBN: 978-1-77258-379-3
" This is a refreshing and original exploration of an important and under-studied topic that is even taboo. The notion that mothers
might have ambivalence or regret about parenting is not socially acceptable. The questions explored in this volume are important intellectually, and the texts curated here provide an emotionally resonant and academically rigourous discussion of maternal regret that complements and enriches any consideration of "bad" or "outlaw" mothering and mothers' resistances to patriarchal paradigms that confine them."
- Dr. Rebecca Jaremko, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Carleton University Department of Law and Legal Studies
"With this outstanding book, Demeter Press makes a vital intervention into the emerging critical and creative field of maternal regret. As editor Andrea O’Reilly explains in the Introduction to the volume, articulations of maternal regret were previously surrounded by shame and alienation. That silence was exacerbated by a gap in knowledge, as until recently the topic of maternal regret was shunned from public discourse, making this book a key contribution to the study of motherhood and mothering. The volume addresses this gap in knowledge and research, by tracing, theorising and critically analysing key themes and concerns. As O’Reilly argues, the topic of maternal regret is now increasingly forming part of critical and popular debates around motherhood and mothering. This fascinating volume opens up a vital textual space for those urgent conversations about the complex subject of maternal regret, and is essential reading for academics, researchers, and creative writers alike. "
- Dr. Charlotte Beyer, University of Gloucestershire
“Introduction” Andrea O’Reilly
SECTION ONE: Resistances
“the alarm” Tracey Rowe
Chapter One: “‘Out of bounds’: Maternal Regret and the Reframing of Normative Motherhood” Andrea O’Reilly
Chapter Two: “’I Don’t Want To Be a Mom Anymore’: Rhetoric of Maternal Resentment”
Lorin Basden Arnold
Chapter Three: “’Reimaging What Might Have Been’ A Comparative Analysis of Abortion and Maternal Regret” Alesha E. Doan and J. Shoshanna Ehrlich
Chapter Four: “Shocking Readers and Shaking Taboos: Maternal Body and Affects in Itō Hiromi’s Work” Juliana Buriticá Alzate
Chapter Five: “The Sublimation of Maternal Regret in HBO’s Big Little Lies (2017)” Rachel Williamson
Chapter Six: “’My Yes, My First and Only” Dealing with Assumptions of Regret about Family Size” Karla Knutson
SECTION TWO: Renunciations
Chapter Seven: “The Children Leave: Maternal Abandonment in Two Munro Stories: “Silence” (2004) and “Deep-Holes” (2009)” Laurie Kruk
Chapter Eight: “Love and Longing; Silence and Strife: What Went Wrong?” Jane Turo
Chapter Nine: “My mother’s story” Kanchan Trapathi
SECTION THREE: Reflections
“Her Response (To Frost’s Question)” Victoria Bailey.
Chapter Ten: “Pernicious Narratives Adoption and Disability Chronicles That Coarsen and Corrupt Their Readers” Martha Satz
Chapter Eleven: “Time Machine” Jessica Jennrich
Chapter Twelve:” From Mourning to Greeting: The Predicament and Possibilities of Maternal Regret” BettyAnn Martin and Michelann Parr
Chapter Thirteen: “Minjinaweziwin: Anishinaabeg Women’s Teachings on Maternal Regret” Renee E. Mazinegiizhigoo-kwe Bedard
Chapter Fourteen: “(How) Can We Speak of This?” Opening into the Dark Spaces of Maternal Regret, Choice, and the Unknowable” May Friedman and Jacqui Gingras
Andrea O’Reilly, PhD, is full professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at York University, founder and director of The Motherhood Initiative (1998-2019), founder/editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative and publisher of Demeter Press. She is coeditor/editor of twenty-five books including Feminist Perspectives on Young Mothers and Mothering (2019) Feminist Parenting: Perspectives from African and Beyond (2020) Mothers, Mothering, and COVID-19: Dispatches from a Pandemic (2021) and Maternal Theory: Essential Readings, The 2nd Edition (2021), Monstrous Mothers; Troubling Tropes (2021). She is editor of the Encyclopedia on Motherhood (2010) and co-editor of the Routledge Companion to Motherhood (2019). She is author of Toni Morrison and Motherhood: A Politics of the Heart (2004); Rocking the Cradle: Thoughts on Motherhood, Feminism, and the Possibility of Empowered Mothering (2006); and Matricentric Feminism: Theory, Activism, and Practice, The 2nd edition (2021). She is currently completing a monograph on Mothers and Mothering in Post 2010 Women’s Writing. Dr. O’Reilly has received more than a 1.5 million dollars in grant funding for her research including the current projects “Older Young Mothers in Canada” and “Mothers and Covid-19 in Canada and Australia.” She is twice the recipient of York University’s “Professor of the Year Award” for teaching excellence and is the 2019 recipient of the Status of Women and Equity Award of Distinction from OCUFA (Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations).
