Motherhood and mother-daughter relations in Janice Kulyk Keefer's The Ladies' Lending Library

Title: Motherhood and mother-daughter relations in Janice Kulyk Keefer's The Ladies' Lending Library
Source document: The Central European journal of Canadian studies. 2012, vol. 8, iss. [1], pp. 31-44
Extent
31-44
  • ISSN
    1213-7715 (print)
    2336-4556 (online)
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Rights access
embargoed access
 

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Abstract(s)
One of the conundrums experienced by women in patriarchal societies is connected with the often made equation between women's social standing and role in such a society and their procreative functions. What this means for women is that their identities are usually perceived only through the aspect of motherhood. "Mothers" are the topic of women's magazines and other media, they are the frequent subject of political and social debates and, finally, they are a recurring literary theme (cf. Woodward 241 and 265-73). The paradox here is that "[w]e know more about the air we breathe, the seas we travel, than about the nature and meaning of motherhood" (Rich 11). Referring to Adrienne Rich's observation, Kathryn Woodward recognizes thus our urgent "need to ask whose version of motherhood we have" (241) since it is not mothers who speak to us because in fact "the mother [is] being spoken rather than speaking" (Kaplan in Woodward 243). In her novel The Ladies' Lending Library (2007), Janice Kulyk Keefer asks this question and by depicting the silenced realm of mothers, the writer empowers women to speak. The aim of this article is to reveal what secrets of motherhood, and at the same time of daughterhood, are exposed by the voices heard in Kulyk Keefer's fictional community of mothers and daughters.
L'une des énigmes rencontrées par les femmes dans les sociétés patriarcales concerne leur statut social – comme procréatrices – et le rôle auxquels les confinerait une telle société. L'angle de la maternité est l'un de ceux qui tend à accaparer la manière dont on déchiffre et interprète l'identité féminine. "Les mères" sont le sujet des magazines féminins et d'autres médias. Elles font l'objet de fréquents débats politiques et sociaux. Enfin, elles sont un thème littéraire récurrent (cf. Woodward 241 et 265-73). Se référant au travail d'Adrienne Rich, Kathryn Woodward insiste sur le "besoin de demander de qui émane notre version de la maternité" et remarque que "la mère est l'objet, et non le sujet ou lémettrice, d'un discours." Dans son roman The Ladies' Lending Library (2007), Janice Kulyk Keefer propose un traitement fictionnel et littéraire de ce problème, en décrivant le silence de la mère. Le travail de l'écrivain permet aux femmes de parler. La littérature leur donne une voix propre et leur confère une véritable autonomie dans le discours. Le but de cet article est d'explorer les secrets de la maternité et en même temps de la filliarité ("daughterhood"), selon l'angle qui est adopté dans le roman.
References
[1] Beavoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.

[2] Kaplan, Ann. "The Psychoanalytic Sphere and Motherhood Discourse" (excerpt). In Woodward, Kathryn (ed.), Identity and Difference. London: Sage Publications, 2002, 289-97.

[3] Rich, Adrienne. Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. New York and London: W.W. Nor-ton & Company, 1995.

[4] Suchacka, Weronika. 'Za Hranetsiu'– 'Beyond the Border': Constructions of Identities in Ukrainian-Canadian Literature. Diss. Greifswald U, 2011 (Publication Date: 6th July 2012), 27.08.2012: http://ub-ed.ub.uni-greifswald.de/opus/volltexte/2012/1271/.

[5] Woodward, Kathryn. "Motherhood: Identities, Meanings, and Myths." In Woodward, Kathryn (ed.), Identity and Difference. London: Sage Publications, 2002, 239-97.