Denied and disowned motherhood in the works of Dacia Maraini and Annie Ernaux

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Abstract

This comparative literature thesis examines the portrayals of motherhood in selected autobiographical, fictional and autofiction works by Dacia Maraini and Annie Ernaux. In particular, it explores the concepts of denied and disowned motherhood, arguing that the authors’ personal experiences of abortion and miscarriage affected, in more ways than one, their literary production on the same topic. The interdisciplinary nature of this research is introduced early in Chapter One with a literature review on motherhood studies, which highlights gaps in the field and explains why a literary studies approach to such a relevant topic is needed. Context and background information on the authors’ lives and upbringing are provided in Chapter Two, while Chapter Three traces the socio-political developments in Italy and France throughout the twentieth century, looking at portrayals of motherhood and the binomial mother-wife in Ernaux and Maraini’s narratives. Particular attention is paid to the 1970s movements, the legalisation of abortion in France and Italy respectively, and how these events altered the authors’ works. The literary analysis in Chapter Four delves further into Ernaux and Maraini’s representation of denied and disowned motherhood, with a comparative scrutiny of the ways in which the authors address and write about the trauma of abortion and miscarriage.

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