Professional Documents
Culture Documents
In
M. Motapanyane (ed.), Motherhood and single/lone parenting: A 21st century perspective (pp. 19-52). Toronto,
Ontario, Canada: Demeter Press. (Anonymously/blind refereed). Lead Essay.
Abstract
Building on our feminist mothering scholarship (Bressler, in press; Lengel, Birzescu & Minda,
2008) and on feminist film and media scholarship (see, for instance, Kaplan, 2005; Kaplan, 2006), this
study representations of mothering in popular cultural 21st century post-apocalyptic televisual texts.
While there has been a small amount of research on mothering in the post-apocalyptic literary genre
(Schrynemakers, 2007; Martucci, 2007; Ostman, 2007; Haupt, 2007), to date there is none
With particular focus on the parent/child relationships in Revolution and The Walking Dead, we ask
with what contemporary contexts and themes do post-apocalyptic narratives resonate? We examine
the state of family in flux, the difficult decisions mother face, and the cultural and psychological
care, make difficult decisions for, and provide secure environments for children. What community
and social responsibilities do these mothers promote? Situating lone motherhood within the
political contexts, single parenting is an on-going survival test. Single mothers, thus, may actually
excel in post-apocalyptic existence situations, given the trauma they may have experienced in the
pre-apocalyptic condition.
References
Haupt, M. (2007). Mothering amid White Noise: DeLillo’s post apocalyptic mother in the kitchen.
Paper presented at the Northeast Modern Language Association 38th Convention, Baltimore,
Maryland, March 2, 2007.
Kaplan, E. A. (2005). Trauma culture: The politics of terror and loss in media and literature. Piscataway,
NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Lengel, L., Birzescu, A., & Minda, J. (2008). Mothering in a time of terror. In A. Kinser (ed.),
Mothering in the third wave. Toronto: Demeter Press.
Lima, A. R., Mello, M. F., Andreoli, S. B., Fossaluza, V., de Araújo, C. M., Jackowski, A. P., & ... Mari,
J. J. (2014). The Impact of Healthy Parenting as a protective factor for posttraumatic stress disorder in
adulthood: A case-control study. Plos ONE, 9(1), 1-9.
Martucci, E. (2007). Toxicity in the mother-land. Paper presented at the Northeast Modern Language
Association 38th Convention, Baltimore, Maryland, March 2, 2007.
Ostman, H. (2007). Staving off the apocalypse: Motherhood in Grace Paley’s short fiction. Paper
presented at the Northeast Modern Language Association 38th Convention, Baltimore, Maryland,
March 2, 2007.
Schrynemakers, I. (2007). Nuclear family values: Fallout crimes in Ross Macdonald’s crime fiction.
Paper presented at the Northeast Modern Language Association 38th Convention, Baltimore,
Maryland, March 2, 2007.
Standing, K. (1999). Lone mothers' involvement in their children’s schooling: Towards a new
typology of maternal involvement. Gender & Education, 11(1), 57-73.
Sussex, L. (2009). Riot on the state library lawn, or utopia is the mother of dystopia. Overland, (196),
69-74.
Winkler, C. (1998). Mothering, equality and the individual: Feminist debates and welfare policies in
the USA and Sweden. Community, Work & Family, 1(2), 149-166.