Mother-daughter Relationship Research Articles

Traversing Gendered Margins through the Lens of Mother-Daughter Relationship: A Reading of Krishna Sobti's Listen, Girl! and Geetanjali Shree's Tomb Of Sand


 
 
 
 This paper seeks to examine the obfuscating yet definitive and detrimental presence of patriarchal control and gendered realities in family dynamics through an analysis of Krishna Sobti's Ai Ladki (Listen Girl!) and Geetanjali Shree's Ret Samadhi (Tomb of Sand). These two fictional texts can help to understand the intricate relationship between gender, identity, and other cultural constructs within the context of Indian literature in Translation through a close examination of the power dynamics and social norms underlying the family system as portrayed in these narratives. The objective is to investigate these complex interplays so as to locate the position and subjectivity of Indian women in specific contexts and relationships. Both texts map the space of the historically victimized female subject and further explore the possibility of alternative subjectivities within the framework of Indian feminism. The paper is divided into three sections, each of which foregrounds the importance of equal representation of all genders as well as individuals from the periphery, making inclusivity the central theme. The first section explores the distinct fields of literary and cultural translation and their contribution to the making of “Women's Writings” within the expansive framework of “Indian Literature,” highlighting the often-overlooked status of women writers and translators and their invaluable contributions to shaping and amplifying the voices of Indian women relegated to obscurity due to the burden of being both women and Indian. The second section sheds light on the strong and intense presence of women writers in indigenous languages and their considerable impact on the wider literary landscape. The third section probes the chosen literary works as specimens of “ecriture feminine” (to use the term coined by Helene Cixous).
 
 
 

The Distorted Image of the Mother-Daughter Relationship in Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” and Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”

ABSTRACT This article answers questions about how patriarchy resists all the social and cultural changes during postmodernism and how it reinforces the distorted image of the mother in her relationship with her daughter. The questions’ answers will be critically investigated in relation to two postmodernist stories, Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” ([1964] 1968) and Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” ([1978] 2003). According to the findings, patriarchal hegemony over the relationship between mother and daughter is not limited to traditional societies; it is universal and can even be traced in postmodernist Western literature. The patriarchal motherhood that puts daughters in a frame to meet society’s expectations, that raises daughters as copies of their mothers, that prepares daughters to marry and be good housewives, and that neglects daughters’ needs and deprives them of a model to identify with are all explored in this article. The role of women, among many others, is to lead, to create changes, to educate, and to prepare generations for a better future. Women should reject considering housekeeping as an area of competition and should pass this on to their daughters. They must realize their own individual identity and evaluate themselves away from their forced traditional role.

The Examination of the Mother-Daughter Relationship On Their Body Perception

The Examination of the Mother-Daughter Relationship On Their Body Perception

A Study on the Transformations of the Relationship between Married Daughters Who Cared for Their Demented Fathers and Her Families with the Systems Perspective

<p>"本研究以系統觀點探討已婚女兒成為失智父親照顧者之脈絡、已婚女兒與失智父親、以及與其他家人的關係變化。採用敘事研究法進行本研究,共訪談兩位已婚女兒。研究發現在父親失智初期,家庭延續過去因應模式,因此與母親關係親近的已婚女兒處理失智相關事務。當失智加劇,已婚女兒與母親一同照顧父親,形成緊密的父親-母親-女兒三角照顧關係。已婚女兒同時照顧父親,也安撫母親的情緒。整體而言,不論早期父女關係如何,與母親關係親近,則已婚女兒容易成為失智父親的照顧者。在已婚女兒成為照顧者之後,原本疏遠的父女關係也轉為親近,但在入住長照機構後父女關係可能出現再次轉折。已婚女兒也與極少分擔照顧責任、無提供經濟資源的兒子,關係疏離。過去探討失智照顧的文獻多聚焦在照顧者個人觀點或是照顧者-被照顧者兩人關係。不同於過去研究,本研究的獨特之處在於發現失智照顧歷程的父親-母親-女兒之三角照顧關係,並針對已婚女兒成為照顧者的家庭脈絡與文化脈絡進行討論。最後,依據研究結果對實務工作與未來研究提出相關建議。</p> <p> </p><p>The research, from the Systems perspective, explored the contextualization of married daughters who cared for their demented fathers, the change in the relationships between married daughters and the demented fathers, and the change in relationships between married daughters and the other family members. This study was conducted with narrative research. A total of 2 married daughters were interviewed. This study found that in the early stage of dementia, the family continued with the previous coping strategies and these married daughters who had close relationships with their mothers took on the dementia-related affairs. As dementia exacerbated, these married daughters and mothers took care of the father together, forming a close father-mother-daughter triangulation. These daughters were taking care of the fathers with dementia, while also soothing their mother’s mood. Regardless of the father-daughter relationships before the onset of dementia, the closer the mother-daughter relationship, the more likely these married daughters were to become caregivers for their fathers. Subsequently, after these daughters becoming caregivers, the father-daughter relationships transformed from distant to close, but there may be another turning point after those fathers moving into the long-term care institutions. Prior studies on the care of dementia have focused on the personal perspective of the family caregiver or the relationship between the caregiver and the family member with dementia. Unlike previous studies, the unique finding of this study is the father-mother-daughter triangulation in the care process. Finally, based on the research findings, some suggestions were made for practical work and future research.</p> <p> </p>

Baroque and Female Body: From Ecstasy to Madness in Henry James’s What Maisie Knew

Henry James’s critics suggest numerous form-conscious reasons for his serpentine meaning-making aesthetics. Seeing the undecidability of James’s proto-modernist narrative on a par with that of the baroque aesthetics, this paper cites the inscribable essence of the female body in James’s materialism as one undiscussed reason. In the theories of écriture feminine or feminine writing, the female writer’s integrity with her body serves as the source of logic for the writing practice that revolts against phallogocentric conventions. In search of a concrete example for this assertion, I celebrate the content-conscious contemporaneity between James’s What Maisie Knew and New Woman writing in light of four common motifs: the psycho-ethical analysis of (1) the protagonist’s melancholic mother-daughter relationship and (2) her quest for truth paves the way for the essentialist insight into (3) the privilege of feminine aesthetics and (4) the emancipated motion of the New Woman’s body. The secondary objective of this paper is to celebrate the ideological return of the baroque in James’s proto-modernism through such topoi as imperfect beauty, motion, and madness so as to introduce the meaning-making role of the body in his impressionistic integrity of subject and object.

Love in Shadow: The Narrative of East Asian Mother-Daughter Relationship in Contemporary Films

The value and morality that dominated East Asian societies for centuries have forged a unique and oriental-featured mother-and-daughter relationship. This relationship explains how the parent and domestic relations within the basic structure of an Asian family have finally become an unbearable burden for the daughter. The case study on the two films' figure settings and their narratives further demonstrates how the virtue of filial piety alongside other traditional values is working on the reproduction of the mother-and-daughter relationship for modern families. The most typical example is the unconditional sacrifice of parents for their children and the unconditional obedience of children to their parents after receiving these profits. To regulate this long-term relationship between parents and children, Confucianism uses "filial piety" to restrain and regulate. It is argued that in East Asian societies, thousands of years of cultural underpinnings have caused women to grow up with much confinement and pain. The stubbornly patriarchal social system behind human beings is the root of the problem.

Mothered/Othered Daughters: Mother Abjection and Diasporic Identity in Ethnic American Short Fiction

Mother-daughter relationships are usually fraught with tension, which is intensified by the cultural and social conditions under which the mother and the daughter live in culturally diverse societies. Immigrant mothers affect their daughters’ identity formation as they simultaneously nourish and hinder their initiation into the societies they reside in. Through adopting Julia Kristeva’s theory of the abject as a psychoanalytic critical framework, the study examines the extent to which the ambivalent feelings the daughter usually shows towards her mother are embodied in the conflicting feelings she experiences towards the two cultures forming her identity as a second generation immigrant. This is done by analysing the connection between the mother-daughter relationship, the diasporic daughter’s identity and the cross-cultural relations she forms in a culturally diverse setting as manifested in four short stories written by four ethnic-American writers: “Everyday Use” by the African American Alice Walker, “Two Kinds” by the Chinese American Amy Tan, “Aunt Moon’s Young Man” by the Native American Linda Hogan and “How I Became My Mother’s Daughter” by the Arab American Laila Lalami.

The role of paternal and maternal warmth and hostility on daughter's psychosocial outcomes: The insidious effects of father warmth combined with high paternal hostility.

Despite the well-accepted view on the importance of parental warmth and parental hostility for adolescent development, few studies have examined the joint interactive effects of these two key aspects of parenting. Furthermore, research comparing maternal and paternal parenting is limited, with the father-daughter relationship during adolescence remaining one of the more understudied familial contexts. Given that family processes are key for the intergenerational transmission of inequality, these parent-child relationships may be especially important for youth at risk for exposure to violence. Using a sample of juvenile female offenders, this study examined the associations between the perceived warmth and hostility in the father-daughter and mother-daughter relationships on daughters' depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, romantic partner warmth, romantic partner hostility, and the daughter's sense of agency. We hypothesized that high perceived parental warmth would moderate the effects of parental hostility by protecting daughters from the negative effects of parental hostility, with stronger effects for the father-daughter than the mother-daughter relationship. In contrast, our paternal relationship findings across four of the five outcomes suggest a moderation in the opposite direction - that is, high perceived father warmth exacerbates the deleterious effects of father hostility on daughters' depressive symptoms, anxiety, romantic partner warmth, and romantic partner hostility. Maternal warmth, and not hostility, had a direct association with these four outcomes, with stronger explanatory power shown for the father-daughter than the mother-daughter model. Higher agency was associated with maternal hostility only. Our findings suggest that daughters might be modeling and internalizing the relationship with their fathers (for better or worse) when they perceive it as warm and supportive. Consequently, adolescent girls whose fathers exhibit hostile behavior may benefit from emotional distancing from their fathers.

Self Hatred East Asian Woman Females Misogyny Breeds from Father-Daughter and Mother-Daughter Relationships in Japan and China

Misogyny, which refers to the misrepresentation and degrading of women as reflected in an aversion to femininity, feminism, and things associated with women, is an important maintenance of the patriarchy society. Misogyny is described as a disease in Chinese, however, granted that the translation describes it as something needed to be correct, East Asia cultural circle as a whole oftentimes neglect the importance of it since women get so used to being treat in a misogynistic manner by both men and women even though it could be the main source of threat to womens right in the workplace and homestead. The fact that women are also susceptible to misogyny making it unnoticeable is worth to research as this type of misogyny between women is the advance version of the reproductive competition driven by natural desire, however, circumventing is type of same-sex loath is possible, and beneficial to gender equality. To this end, searching for the manifestation of misogyny existing in the same-sex relationship is one of the biggest targets of this paper as well. Inspired by the motive of Tomohiro Kato for executing the Akihabara Massacre, this paper was written in attempt to answer serval questions of why both men and women are susceptible to misogyny; why misogyny is so entrenching; how does misogony pass on from parents to daughters; what are the manifestation of misogyny in literatures; how to get rid of misogyny or make it less susceptible.

Intergenerational transmission of childhood maltreatment and eating disorder behaviors: Shedding light on the mother-daughter dyad and grandmother-mother-daughter triad

IntroductionPrevious studies have established a relation between childhood maltreatment and eating disorder behaviors. However, this pattern of relations has not yet been studied within the nuclear family interactions.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to examine a model illuminating the transgenerational mechanism underlying the association between childhood maltreatment and eating disorder behaviors.MethodsOne-hundred-sixty-eight Israeli mothers and their young-adult-daughters (discovery sample) and 143 Israeli grandmother-mother-daughter triads (replication sample) filled out a battery of questionnaires assessing their history of childhood maltreatment and level of eating disorder behaviors.ResultsResults of structural equation modeling (SEM) in the discovery sample indicated that mothers’ childhood maltreatment was associated with daughters’ childhood maltreatment and that mothers’ eating disorder behaviors were also associated with daughters’ eating disorder behaviors. In addition, for both mothers and daughters, childhood maltreatment was associated with eating disorder behaviors. Finally, an indirect effect was found in which the relation between mothers’ childhood maltreatment and daughters’ eating disorders was mediated by mothers’ eating disorders. Partial replication was observed; grandmothers’ childhood maltreatment was significantly associated with mothers’ childhood maltreatment. Grandmothers’ eating disorder behaviors were associated with mothers’ eating disorders and mothers’ eating disorders were associated with daughters’ eating disorders. Finally, an indirect effect was found in which the association between grandmothers’ eating disorders and daughters’ eating disorders were mediated by mothers’ eating disorders.ConclusionsThese findings point to the significant contribution of the mother-daughter relationship in different aspects of the intergenerational transmission of both childhood maltreatment and eating disorder behaviors. These findings highlight the need to include a trauma-informed family-system approach in the treatment of eating disorders.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms: The Journey for the Search of Identity and the Natural Environment

Solar Storms is a persuasive work that conveys Linda Hogan’s philosophy on the relationship between man and nature. Hogan believes that man and nature are interdependent as well as interconnected. The western Christian belief which separates heaven and earth leads whites to neglect the natural environment. In the novel, Angela is the victim of the dominant white culture and their history. Her return to the tribal community and the subsequent journey to meet her mother vitalizes her Native American identity and historical consciousness. The hazardous journey with three old women and the effects of their storytelling offers Angela an opportunity to open her eyes to the significance of both social and environmental justice. Angela’s experience of the tribal tradition of mother-daughter relationships and her reconciliation with her mother awakens her identity through a new perspective of history in which she actively participates in the protest against the building of the dams and river diversions in order to save the lives of indigenous people as well as the natural environment.

The mother–daughter Shared Agency in Weight Management Scale (SAWMS): development, validation, and implications for body dissatisfaction

BackgroundMuch research suggests that mothers play an important role in shaping daughters’ body image, yet less is known about how mother–daughter relationship dynamics in weight management affect daughters’ body dissatisfaction. The current paper described the development and validation of the mother–daughter Shared Agency in Weight Management Scale (SAWMS) and examined its associations with daughter’s body dissatisfaction.MethodsIn Study 1 (N = 676 college students), we explored the factor structure of the mother–daughter SAWMS and identified three processes (control, autonomy support, and collaboration) whereby mothers work with daughters in weight management. In Study 2 (N = 439 college students), we finalized the factor structure of the scale by conducting two CFAs and assessing the test–retest reliability of each subscale. In Study 3 (same sample as Study 2), we examined the psychometric properties of the subscales and their associations with daughters’ body dissatisfaction.ResultsCombining results from EFA and IRT, we identified three mother–daughter dynamics in weight management—maternal control, maternal autonomy support, and maternal collaboration. However, based on various empirical results indicating poor psychometric properties of the maternal collaboration subscale, we removed it from the mother–daughter SAWMS and only evaluated the psychometric properties of the remaining two subscales (i.e., control and autonomy support). They explained a significant amount of variance in daughters’ body dissatisfaction over and above the effect of maternal pressure to be thin. Maternal control was a significant and positive predictor of daughters’ body dissatisfaction; maternal autonomy support was a significant and negative predictor.ConclusionsResults suggested that maternal control in weight management was associated with daughters’ increased body dissatisfaction, whereas maternal autonomy support in weight management was associated with daughters’ lower body dissatisfaction. These specific ways in which mother work with daughters in weight management provide nuances in understanding young women’s body dissatisfaction. Our SAWMS offers new ways to examine body image among young women through the mother–daughter relationship dynamics in weight management.

Reflection of the mother–daughter relationship on the perception of birth: a qualitative study among pregnant women

ABSTRACT This research is conducted to examine the effect of pregnant women’s relationships with their mothers on their perception of birth. This is a qualitative analytic study. This research is carried out with 19 pregnant women who received service from a state hospital in a southern province of Turkey between November-December 2020. Pregnant women between the ages of 18–35, at the 32nd gestational week and above, and who had an active relationship with their mother were included in the study. Data were collected by interview method using semi-structured questions. Descriptive analysis was performed for the analysis of the data. All transcripts were evaluated by two researchers and codes were created. The codes formed the subthemes in terms of similarities and differences, themes were created as a result of combining themes. The data obtained consists of three main themes: 1) Mother – daughter relationship, 2) Perception of birth, 3) Perception of maternal support at the moment of birth.

Jouissance in Association or Dissociation? psycho-linguistic Signals of Kristeva’s Psychoanalytic Concept of “Abjection” in Morrison’s Beloved

Kristeva’s description of motherhood as a "demented jouissance," the pleasure of the pain, reveals the ambivalence of love and hate relationship as the child attempts for individuality by detaching from her mother and a woman within herself. It is an excruciating experience for both mother and daughter since the female identity is not delimited, autonomous, separated, or individuated. Morrison’s Beloved is saturated with conversations that signal actual utterances in the real world, manifesting Kristeva’s concept of abjection through mother-daughter conversational analysis. This study is concerned with how conversational language in terms of syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and lexico-syntaic choices can be a psycho-linguistic indicator of psychological functioning. Specific linguistic style, lexical choices, or syntactic variations used by characters implicate psychological tendencies and inclinations since the mental function is a constituent of the textual structure. This article intends to broaden the insights regarding Kristeva's notion of “abjection” in mother-daughter relationship.

Almodóvar’s High Heels revisited: a scandalous or thought-provoking portrayal of a judge?

ABSTRACT Taking as its focus the 1991 movie High Heels by Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar, this article argues that the multi-layered narrative style of Almodóvar's films make them especially suited to the examination of present-day culture and society. High Heels is the story of a troubled mother–daughter relationship compounded with the subplot of a judge who is entrusted with the investigation of the murder of the daughter's husband. A judge by day, at night he performs as a drag artist in a gay bar (as well as occasionally slipping into other roles). The article contends that, rather than the two plots being in a hierarchical relationship, they are intertwined. Bringing her own biographical perspective as a former judge, Ruth Herz considers the significance of the Almodóvar's judge Dominguez's role as the one who navigates the intricate labyrinth of facts, feelings, and fantasies, and who mediates between the two plots. The unique method employed by Dominguez in his quest for the ‘truth’ challenges the deep-seated notion among the general public and in the judiciary itself of what judgecraft is. He demonstrates – albeit in a typically scandalous, parodic way – how the process of judging continues to remain enigmatic even under democracy, despite the claim of transparency and open courts.

기억의 정치학과 정동(情動) -에스테르 투스케츠의 『우리는 전쟁에서 승리했었다』

Esther Tusquets’ autobiography, Habíamos ganado la guerra was published in 2007, the year that the Law of Historical Memory was passed by the Spanish Congress. Claiming that the vanquished’ perspective on the Civil War and early Francoist period has attracted great attention in memoirs and fiction, Tusquets calls for more reflective writings from the victors’ perspective. Tusquets was born into the an upper-class bourgeois family that was affiliated with the Francoist band, however she had more in common with the vanquished. This study examines the aspects of trauma representation based on the politics of memory and affect in Tusquets’ Habíamos ganado la guerra. As a way of overcoming the limitations of Post-structuralist trauma criticism, this study analyzes the subjective, eccentric experiences and trauma of everyday life based on affect theory. Through the transition of affect that is transferred in the mother-daughter relationship, it is demonstrated that Franco’s patriarchal system of violence penetrates into women’s daily life at a microscopic level. Fear and shame transferred in the mother-daughter relationship are presented not as the emotional and psychological state but as an affect that crosses the mother’s body and is transmitted to the daughter’s body. Tusquets’ trauma narrative presents the ethic of empathy and consideration based on the potential of the resonance of affect.

‘Mother-Daughter Syntax’

This article offers a re-reading of James Joyce’s “Eveline” as a transnational story. The concept of the transnational is brought into conversation with motherhood studies, more precisely, with the notion of the ‘mother-daughter dyad’ (Hirsch). The key here is to ex­plore the formal and narratological clues that Joyce uses to convey religiously inflected inheritances of the maternal, inner splits, patterns of repression and matrophobic reflexes. Joyce partly maps Eveline’s psyche by engaging the reader in a set of delicate auditory exercises and, thereby, offers an indirect re-writing of the Orpheus myth. This article shows how the short story has been conceived as a sort of soundbox and demonstrates that Stephen Clingman’s conceptualisation of the transnational through ‘vertical’ versus ‘horizontal’ patterns of identity can be productively applied in the exploration of literary representations of mother-daughter relations as well.

Mothers' experience of their daughters' fertility problems and treatments.

Fertility treatments are a stressful experience. However, the support provided by meaningful support figures, such as a mother, may contribute positively to the mental health of women with fertility issues. The present study therefore explored the experience of Israeli mothers whose daughters encountered fertility problems and underwent treatment to bring their first child into the world. In a retrospective qualitative study, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 women aged 49-73. Women in the study had a daughter in a spousal heterosexual relationship who conceived her first child via fertility treatment, and this child was up to 4 years old at the time of the interview. Three main themes emerged: (a) The stressfulness of a daughter's fertility problems and treatments for the mother; (b) The mother's supportive role; and (c) The mother's own need for support. The results suggest that due to the unique nature of the mother-daughter relationship, a daughter's fertility problems and treatments are also stressful for her mother. Nevertheless, mothers can be, and wish to be, an important source of support for their daughters. Empirically, further research to extend this understanding is recommended. Practically, professionals should be aware of the mother's distress and the fact that she is likely to deny her own need for support, and make an effort to relate to the stress of these women and help them to be a more effective resource for their daughters. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Keeping the Connection Alive With Tender Care and Common Sense: A Phenomenological Study on Daughters' Experiences of Having a Mother in a Nursing Home.

The relationship between mother and daughter is exceptional when it comes to closeness and its impact on their whole life. Thus, a mother's move to a nursing home is pivotal for both of them. The aim of this interpretative phenomenological study, using the Vancouver School of Doing Phenomenology, was to explore daughters' experience of having a mother in a nursing home, its impact on the maternal relationship, and the daughters' need for education and support. Data were collected by 21 semi-structured interviews with 12 women who had mothers living in a nursing home. Keeping the connection alive with tender care and common sense encapsulates the interrelation between the daughters' urge to hold on to the mother-daughter relationship and the rare consideration of education and support from health professionals. Responsibility and sense of duty paired with relief because the mother is in a safe place were accompanied by the daughters' need for confirmation that the mother is well taken care of.

Maternal Communication About Sexual Content and Ease of Access to Contraceptives.

Previous literature has emphasized the role of mothers in sexual health communication with their adolescents. However, the extant literature lacks exploration of the importance of parental communication in association to specific risk-reduction behaviors, such as access to contraceptives. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to explore the roles of parental attachment, the mother-daughter relationship, and communication about sexual content during adolescence in relation to women's recalled access to contraceptives during their teen years. Cisgender female participants aged between 18 and 35 (N = 582) were retrospectively assessed on maternal and paternal attachment, the mother-daughter relationship, mother-daughter communication about sexual content, and their own access to contraceptives during their teen years. After controlling for socioeconomic status, participant race, and history of pregnancy, only maternal communication about sexual content significantly related to access to contraceptives and ease of access to contraceptives. These results demonstrated that specific communication about sexual content was associated with greater access and ease of access to contraceptives, whereas more general relationship factors and communication did not.