Through the study of art, literature, film, and popular culture, this special topics Humanities course will explore how the idea of “motherhood” has been historically constructed in the United States. Foregrounding study in the matrifocal nineteenth century, we will examine the origins of the “American Madonna” and explore how she has haunted the American imagination since the antebellum period. This course will also consider writers and thinkers who willfully resist the idealization of motherhood and who present an alternative maternal discourse that more fully expresses the complex experience of women who are mothers.
This Spring 2008 class will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:00-3:15 pm.
To enroll in this class, students must have earned a C or better in ENGL 1102.
For more information, contact Mary Wearn at 471-2989 or mary.wearn@maconstate.edu