Motherhood in Brit Bennett’s The Mothers

Abstract

This study investigates the concept of motherhood. The literary work entitled "The Mothers" by Brit Bennett was published in 2016. The novel presents three distinct categories of motherhood, namely biological mothers, surrogate mothers, and communal mothers. Thus, one could contend that the individuals who fulfil the role of bloodmothers in The Mothers are Elise Turner, Nadia Turner, Aubrey Evans, her mother, and Latrice Sheppard. Monique and Latrice are recognised as the individuals who fulfil the role of othermothers within the community, while the church mothers and Latrice Sheppard are also acknowledged as othermothers. In the contemporary era, despite alterations, the concept of motherhood in relation to race continues to serve as a location of discord and subjugation. Bennett's novel problematizes the conventional view of raced motherhood through the theoretical representation of the mother's experience.