Creature of Theory: Maternity Amongst the Ghosts and Strangers
tarafından
Bragg, Nicolette Shannon, author. (orcid)0000-0001-5906-1383
Başlık
:
Creature of Theory: Maternity Amongst the Ghosts and Strangers
Yazar
:
Bragg, Nicolette Shannon, author. (orcid)0000-0001-5906-1383
ISBN
:
9780438027466
Yazar Ek Girişi
:
Bragg, Nicolette Shannon, author.
Fiziksel Tanımlama
:
1 electronic resource (141 pages)
Genel Not
:
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 79-10(E), Section: A.
Advisors: Jane Juffer Committee members: Grant Farred; Saida Hodžić.
Özet
:
"Creature of Theory: Maternity amongst the Ghosts and Strangers" uses a personal account of the maternal relation to disrupt conventional narratives of birth. Typically, birth is understood to be a discrete, singular event of origin and genesis that closely binds woman and child. This understanding constrains definitions of maternity and regulates political and philosophical assumptions of belonging. "Creature of Theory" challenges this view, joining personal anecdote and critical theory in a phenomenology of maternity that foregrounds the repetitions and hauntings of birth, undoing the temporalities and identities this act is presumed to produce. Drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty's "The Intertwining---The Chiasm" and other highly influential philosophical arguments on touch, this dissertation suggests that moments of skin-to-skin repeat and replace birth as a site of origin, while troubling the body's material bounds. Along with Merleau-Ponty, it uses Jacques Derrida's theory of hospitality to emphasize the strangeness of the infant, transforming maternity into an encounter characterized by haunting and strange dwelling. In addition, this dissertation brings together Elissa Marder's concept of photographic writing and Michel Foucault's notion of care of the self to describe how the act of writing recreates the effects of birth, complicating its singularity and naturalness. By challenging common understandings of birth, "Creature of Theory" alleviates concerns of essentialism in relation to the subject of maternity and resists its political appropriation. Moreover, the chiasmic modes of subjectivity that "Creature of Theory" describes alter and expand the time and space of ethical encounter. This phenomenology not only challenges dominant ideologies and representations of motherhood, but it also re-frames highly influential theory, showing its place in this intensely close and tactual relation.
Notlar
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School code: 0058
Konu Başlığı
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British & Irish literature.
Philosophy.
Gender studies.
Tüzel Kişi Ek Girişi
:
Cornell University. English Language & Literature.
Elektronik Erişim
:
Yer Numarası | Demirbaş Numarası | Shelf Location | Shelf Location | Holding Information |
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XX(681741.1) | 681741-1001 | Proquest E-Tez Koleksiyonu | Proquest E-Tez Koleksiyonu | |