Diana Aramburu (University of California - Davis)
dara@****.com (Log-in to reveal)
Carla Portillo (University of California - Davis)
cpor@****.com (Log-in to reveal)
In recent years, maternal chronicles, oftentimes autobiographical texts examining any aspect of mothering, have experienced an extraordinary boom in the editorial market of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking world. While scholars are certainly taking note of this editorial phenomenon and research has been done on maternal writing more generally, one area that requires further investigation is how maternal experiences, the corporeal experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, are translated from the body to the page. This panel examines what Andrea O’Reilly defines as matrifocal texts, “in which a mother plays a role of cultural and social significance and in which motherhood is thematically elaborated and valued; it is structurally central to the plot” (17). We are seeking academic presentations and/or creative works that explore how the maternal experience is translated using artistic genres (traditional or more hybrid genres) as well as papers that reflect upon what it means to create from the maternal space and the strategies used to describe the corporeal experiences and the emotions resulting from the self/body's transformation. Other areas of interest include projects that distinguish between maternal experiences (maternity) and social/institutional expectations (motherhood).
Following feminist critics’ proposal that we give visibility to maternity and mothering and everything it entails, be it infertility, pregnancy, miscarriages, childbirth, breastfeeding, and childrearing, among others, possible topics also include, but are not limited to:
-Use of artistic resources and genres (traditional or non-conventional).
-Reflection about the own act of creating art (acknowledgement of limitations and possibilities) .
-Challenges of putting into words/images/sounds the corporeal and emotional experiences (pain, trauma, etc.)
-Interrelation of body, senses, mind, emotions.
-Strategies to describe corporeal and emotional experiences.
-Creating a matrifocal canon.
-Complexities of the body's response and real maternal experience (maternity) and social/institutional expectations (motherhood).
-Deconstruction or affirmation of “good” vs. “bad mother” representations.
-Translating the maternal experience from Spanish/Portuguese to English and/or vice versa.