LEADER 04108cam a2200433Ia 4500001 137548 005 20240621204039.0 008 080319s2007 xx rb 000 0 eng d 028 52 3284512 |bUMI 035 (OCoLC)ocn273060459 035 137548 049 LHMA 040 LHM |beng |erda |cLHM 090 PS3563.O8749 |bZ357 2007 100 1 Fishbone, Carol A. 245 10 Transcending stereotyped motherhood : |bthe social construction of mothers under duress in Toni Morrison's Beloved and Song of Solomon and Cynthia Ozick's The shawl and The cannibal galaxy / |cCarol A. Fishbone. 264 1 [Place of publication not identified] : |b[publisher not identified], |c2007. 300 iv, 202 pages 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph.D.)--Drew University, 2007. 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 196-202). 520 The primary argument of this dissertation is the question of motherhood under the direct or indirect social traumas of slavery and the Holocaust. Feminist concepts of womanhood as essentialist or socially constructed are also utilized due to the relevant progression of woman to mother. The mothers in question, created by Toni Morrison, an African-American novelist, and Cynthia Ozick, a Jewish-American novelist, who may be biological mothers, othermothers, or both, must co-opt the traditionally accepted and patriarchal definition of motherhood in order to protect themselves and the children in their charge.The analysis occurs when the mothers and othermothers not only defy the definitions, but also the language and actions of accepted motherhood. The first correlations made between characters and novels include Beloved's Sethe and The Shawl's Rosa. Sethe's concept of survival is circumscribed by the constructs of slavery and thus, to kill her children and herself is a better solution than the alternative. Similarly, Rosa must decide whether to silence her daughter, whom she believed for months to be mute as a result of malnutrition and environmental issues, to save the child's life, or allow her to exhibit her recently found voice and die at the hands of the Nazis. The comparative notion of the absence of stereotypical mothering, particularly its positive aspects, and its connectedness to survival of both self and "of the tribe," so to speak, are what link Morrison and Ozick's characters and works, as do the cultural consequences of slavery and the Holocaust: oppression and racism.Morrison's Song of Solomon and Ozick's The Cannibal Galaxy are subsequently analyzed for their similarities regarding the mother characters, and the fact that the women are dealing not only with the trials of motherhood in post-slavery and post-Shoah societies, but also are adversely affected by these oppressive circumstances because of events in their own recent pasts or family histories. Because both Morrison and Ozick decide "to explore history,...and [interpret]...the past's uses in the present" (Kubitschek 22), the effects of slavery and the Holocaust shape aspects of all their mother figures, driving them toward the new literary figure, the heroic mother. 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, Mich. : |cUMI Dissertation Services, |d2008. |e22 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 600 10 Morrison, Toni. |tBeloved. 600 10 Morrison, Toni. |tSong of Solomon. 600 10 Ozick, Cynthia. |tShawl. 600 10 Ozick, Cynthia. |tCannibal galaxy. 650 0 American fiction |y20th century |xHistory and criticism. 650 0 Mothers in literature. 856 41 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1421606791&sid=20&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |uhttp://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib137548/3284512.pdf |zHosted by USHMM. 852 0 |bstacks |hPS3563.O8749 |iZ357 2007 852 |bwww 852 |bebook