Rävjägaren och pärlemor

Abstract

Theme: Motherhood and Mothering. Ill. ©Stina Wirsén The Fox Hunter and the Mother of Pearl: Motherhood and Biology in the Works of Kitty Crowther This article examines the biological aspect of motherhood in Kitty Crowther’s writing, in particular L’enfant racine (2003; The Root Child) and Mère Méduse (2014; Mother Medusa). By paying attention to the intertextual relations and the metaphorical aspects ​​of the images, the analysis demonstrates how Crowther’s iconotext relates to a conflict-filled discourse about mothering and biology. The two works in focus activate dissimilar intertexts, which share references to fertility and pregnancy. L’enfant racine is based on folklore, such as the Czech fairy tale “Otesánek” and Queen Mab. In Mère Méduse the story of Poseidon’s/Neptune’s rape of Medusa in Roman-Greek mythology constitutes an implicit prehistory to the narrative. The two books build up different kinds of symbolism, where a common point is the depiction of parenthood as a more or less organic relationship. In L’enfant racine, it is a hen-chasing fox who lures the soon-to-be adoptive mother into a mysterious forest, and once she finds the child Root, he is literally bereft of his roots. In Mère Méduse, the central symbol is the mother’s living hair, forging an organic bond with the child. Added to this is a play with literal and figurative representations based on the properties of the jellyfish and the mussel’s defence against pebbles through the creation and enclosing of a pearl – in mother of pearl. Crowther’s iconotexts transform conventional symbolism, thus calling for a reflection on the words and images which are used in our culture to speak of motherhood.