Women's Autobiographies, Culture, Feminism

The Author: Kristi Siegel is Associate Professor in the English department at Mount Mary College in Wisconsin and also works as a writer. She received her M.A. in Literature and Ph.D. in Modern Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has published and presented various articles on postmodern, feminist, and autobiographical theory, women's autobiography, medicine, technology, and British Imperialism.

«What’s a mother to do? And what’s a daughter to do with her? These questions lie at the heart of Kristi Siegel’s fascinating study, aptly titled ‘Women’s Autobiographies, Culture, Feminism’. Through a series of engaging discussions of writers such as Simone de Beauvoir, Nathalie Sarraute, Annie Dillard, and Maxine Hong Kingston, Dr. Siegel exposes how women’s texts give voice to the culturally enforced ambivalence – or outright hostility – toward mothers. Does modern culture now value motherhood and the work of mothering, or do we find ourselves once more caught up in the same old myths, fears, repressions, and misunderstandings? Dr. Siegel’s book demonstrates in particular the centrality of an uneasy mother-daughter discourse within modern women’s autobiographies. At the same time she places this discourse in a wider cultural context that includes TV shows like ‘thirtysomething’, the bestsellers of Erma Bombeck, and the advent of postmodernism. Anyone interested in modern literature, feminism, or cultural politics will find Dr. Siegel’s volume provocative and enlightening. Indeed, I recommend it to anyone who has a mother.» (Gregory S. Jay, Professor of English, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)