Nancy Chodorow and The Reproduction of Mothering: Forty Years On

by Petra Bueskens (Editor)

Overview

This book analyzes Nancy Chodorow’s canonical book The Reproduction of Mothering, bringing together an original essay from Nancy Chodorow and a host of outstanding international scholars—including Rosemary Balsam, Adrienne Harris, Elizabeth Abel, Madelon Sprengnether, Ilene Philipson, Meg Jay, Daphne de Marneffe, Alison Stone and Petra Bueskens—in a mix of memoir, festschrift, reflection, critical analysis and new directions in Chodorowian scholarship. In the 40 years since its publication, The Reproduction of Mothering has had a profound impact on scholarship across many disciplines including sociology, psychoanalysis, psychology, ethics, literary criticism and women’s and gender studies.  Organized as a “reproduction of mothering scholarship”, this volume adopts a generationally differentiated structure weaving personal, political and scholarly essays. 

This book will be of interest to scholars across the social sciences and humanities. It willbring Nancy Chodorow and her canonical work to a new generation showcasing classic and contemporary Chodorowian scholarship.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030555900
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	11/30/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	600 KB

About the Author

Petra Bueskens is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia and a psychotherapist in private practice. 

Table of Contents

1.Introduction: The Reproduction of Mothering Turns Forty.– 2. Women Mother Daughters: The Reproduction of Mothering after Forty Years.- 3. The Reproduction of Mothering: Forty Years On.– 4. Reminiscing and Reflecting on Nancy Chodorow’s The Reproduction of Mothering.—5. Thinking Back through our Mothers: Virginia Woolf, Nancy Chodorow, and Me.- 6. The Impact of Nancy Chodorow’s The Reproduction of Mothering and its Implications for the Future.- 7. The Reproduction of Mothering: A Love Story.- 8. Mothering in Life and Therapy: An Appreciation of Chodorow’s Lifelong Contribution. – 9.Mother Figures: On Becoming the Mother One Wishes One Had.- 10. The Production of Male Mothering. –11. Lesbian Desire and the Female Subject: Full Circle with Chodorow.- 12. Mother-Daughter Relations and the Maternal in Irigaray and Chodorow.- 13. Mothers Reproducing the Social: Chodorow and Beyond.- 14. Mirroring a Mother’s Love: A Chodorowian Analysis of the Complicated Relationship Between Mothers and Nannies.- 15. The Reproduction of Mothering: Unlocking Italian Women’s Fiction from the Fin-de-Siècle Onwards.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Petra Bueskens’ landmark volume is a tribute to Dr. Chodorow’s active reproduction of mothering through her scholarly, clinical and mentoring activities. The luminous voices of scholars, students and contemporary colleagues who are contributors to the volume reflect the dynamic and generative nature of Chodorow’s work. This book will challenge and nurture – that is, mother – each of us who reads it.”
Harriet Wolfe, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UC San Francisco; President-elect, International Psychoanalytical Association

“This collection by Nancy herself along with her intellectual daughters and granddaughters is a volume to cherish. Writing from different life cycle and cultural vantage points, the authors reflect on the transformative effects of Chodorow’s classic text and its continuing implications for psychoanalytic, literary and cultural theory as well as for their own personal and professional lives.”
Carol Gilligan, Professor of Applied Psychology and the Humanities, New York University; author of In a Different Voice and Why Does Patriarchy Persist? (with Naomi Snider)

“Forty years ago, The Reproduction of Mothering introduced a groundbreaking approach to understanding capitalist patriarchy. By putting women at the center of analysis, Chodorow paved the way for feminist revolutions in sociology and psychoanalysis. Petra Bueskens’ superb volume pays tribute to her intellectual legacy and the generations of scholars she inspired.”
Christine Williams, Professor of Sociology, The Elsie and Stanley E. (Skinny) Adams, Sr. Centennial Professor of Liberal Arts, The University of Texas at Austin; President, American Sociological Association

“Revisiting the impact of Nancy Chodorow’s contribution to feminist scholarship is a critical task for our contentious times. Many recent debates seem to generate more passion and hostility than collective understanding, but Petra Bueskens’ edited book deepens our grasp of culturally diverse patterns of gendered identity and social practice. In bringing together Chodorow’s theoretical insights and the contributions of a wide range of contemporary feminist scholars, including Bueskens, she has produced a collection of important work that challenges and extends the earlier psychoanalytic feminist tradition.”
Kerreen Reiger, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne; author of The Disenchantment of the Home: Modernizing the Australian Family (OUP); Our Bodies Our Babies: the Forgotten Women’s Movement (MUP)