Valerie Heffernan – författare

Images, representations and constructions of mothers have historically shaped and continue to shape the way we imagine the institution of motherhood and the experience of mothering. The various contributions included in this volume consider the diversity of maternal images and narratives that circulate in literature, the arts and popular culture and analyse how they reflect on and influence the cultural meaning of motherhood in the contemporary era. Mindful of the fact that the images of motherhood that we see in popular media, on television, and in literature are not mere background noise to our daily lives, the various chapters explore how they influence our understanding of what it means to be a mother, affect our expectations of motherhood and of mothers, frame our experience of mothering, and even inform our reproductive decisions.

Including insights from media studies, cultural studies, literary studies, and the performing and visual arts, this book explores how engaging with diverse representations of mothers and mothering contributes to a broader and deeper interdisciplinary understanding of how motherhood is constructed in our time.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Women: A Cultural Review.

Images, representations and constructions of mothers have historically shaped and continue to shape the way we imagine the institution of motherhood and the experience of mothering. The various contributions included in this volume consider the diversity of maternal images and narratives that circulate in literature, the arts and popular culture and analyse how they reflect on and influence the cultural meaning of motherhood in the contemporary era. Mindful of the fact that the images of motherhood that we see in popular media, on television, and in literature are not mere background noise to our daily lives, the various chapters explore how they influence our understanding of what it means to be a mother, affect our expectations of motherhood and of mothers, frame our experience of mothering, and even inform our reproductive decisions.

Including insights from media studies, cultural studies, literary studies, and the performing and visual arts, this book explores how engaging with diverse representations of mothers and mothering contributes to a broader and deeper interdisciplinary understanding of how motherhood is constructed in our time.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Women: A Cultural Review.

Unter dem Stichwort „Mythos Schweiz“ diskutiert dieser Band die prominente Rolle insbesondere der Deutschschweizer Literatur für Identitätsbildungsprozesse und ihre kritische Reflexion in der Schweiz im 20. Jahrhundert. Er versammelt die Beiträge einer Dubliner Tagung aus dem Jahre 2006, die namhafte Schweizer Germanisten und Fachkollegen aus Irland, Großbritannien, Kanada, den USA und Deutschland zusammenbrachte. Besonders seit Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs ist die Schweizer Literatur im kulturell-gesellschaftlichen Ensemble der Diskurse ein zentrales Medium für die Fort- und Umschreibungen etablierter Schweiz-Mythen wie etwa ‚Sonderfall‘, ‚Eidgenossenschaft‘, ‚Neutralität‘, ‚Alpen‘, ‚Multikulturalität‘ oder ‚literarischer Gegendiskurs‘. Diese und andere Mythen analysiert der Band unter Schwerpunktthemen wie: das Konzept „Schweizer Literatur“ im Zeichen von Globalisierung und Multikulturalität; das Verhältnis zwischen den Sprachen und Kulturen in der Schweiz und zum größeren deutschsprachigen Kulturraum; das Verhältnis von Geschichte, Landschaft und Identität; die Spannung zwischen Regionalem und Globalem, Schweizspezifik und Internationalismus; die unterschiedlichen Generationenprofile innerhalb der schweizerischen Autoren.