Mothering in the Stepmother Tongue: Maternal Subjectivity and Linguistic Practice in Nancy Huston's Autobiographical Non-Fiction

Abstract

This article explores Huston's subject position as a mother and writer that emerges in her autobiographical non-fiction written during or reflecting upon the period of her life when her children were born and during their early childhood. The article aims to understand how and why Huston comes to mother in her adoptive ‘stepmother’ tongue, French, and how it is significant in her translingual writing practice. In light of Julia Kristeva's concept of the semiotic chora and its interpretation offered by Alison Stone, this article argues that although Huston's maternal linguistic practice originates in a traumatic early experience of her mother's departure, her embodied use of French with her children performs a restorative and healing function enabling a translingual practice of mothering as well as writing.