アメリカ先住民文学に描かれた母親像の研究

／

埼大

伝Ａ６”し柿８ぢＺ ９３０２／Ｓｕ か み二■

アメリカ先住民文学に描かれた母親像の研究

(研究課題番号１２６１０５７０） 平成１３年度一平成１４年度科学研究費補助金（基盤研究Ｃ（２））研究成果報告書 平成１４年３月 埼大ｺｰﾅｰ i･玉大学附属図書す

|llllllllll||||llllllllllllllllllll

研究代表者杉山直子 ９９８００５２６１ (埼玉大学教養学部助教授）

目次 研究の概要 まえがき …   2 …   3 Matema1SubjectivitiesintheLate20thCentury：     Mu l t i cul tura l Materna l Di scours e（s） Towar（i the …   4 ジェンダー・女神信仰、オーセンティシティ：トニ・モリノンの『パラダイス』と     レズリー・マーモン・シルコウの『死者の暦』における女神表象を     めぐって      …  39

研究の概要 本研究は、アメリカ合衆国の先住民（いわゆるアメリカ・インディアン）による文学作品 の中で、女性、特に母親がどのように表象されているかを研究し、そこに先住民の伝統的 な文化の母系的、母権的な母親像がどのように反映され、あるいは選択的に利用されてい るかを検証しようとしたものである。特にレズリー・シルコウら1970年代以降に活動して いる作家に注目するが、その際19世紀以来の文学により表象された先住民文化も視野に いれることは必須である。その中で、従来フェミニズム文学批評で用いられていた母子関 係モデル、母親の心理モデルを批判的に使用し、その有効性および限界にっいても、具体 的な事例に即して研究することも重要な部分である。 平成12年度  先住民文学で現在入手していないもの、および先住民の文化、文学に関する文献を、特 に女性、母親、母権制、母系制社会に関するものを中心に、MLA International Bibliographyなどのデータ・べ一ス・ソフトを利用して検索し、その結果に基づいて文献 表を作成した。この文献表に基づき、未入手の文献の収集に着手した。  同時に文学における母親像、母子関係についての理論、研究の専門書についても同様に 検索、文献表の作成を行ない、未入手の文献を収集した。入手した文献の研究を開始し、 その研究成果の一部を、六月の日本アメリカ学会全国大会で口頭発表し、国内外の参加者 よりレビューを受けた。また8月に渡米、インディアナ大学文学部スーザン・グーバー教 授らより中間成果に関してレビューを受けた。 平成13年度 12年度に開始した資料収集を続行すると同時に、論文執筆を進めた。成果の一部を、一 月に口頭発表の形で公開した。同時に英語、目本語両方で論文を作成し、国内およびアメ リカ合衆国の学術誌に投稿する準備を行なった。渡米しスーザン・グーバー教授ら複数の 専門家よりレビューを受けると同時に、合衆国における口頭および学術雑誌への発表につ いてアドバイスを受けた。 帰国後、レビューの結果をとりいれて本成果報告書の論文を完成させた。また平成14年 二月、その成果の一部分をとりいれた口頭発表「チャイナタウンの孫悟空」を行なった。 口頭発表 平成一二年六月  「黒人作家の描くディアスポラ」  （日本アメリカ学会全国大会） 平成一三年一月   rジェンダー・オーセンテイシテイ・女神信仰」  （科学研究費特定    領域研究B『米国太平洋変動研究』 研究会） 平成一四年二月  rチャイナタウンの孫悟空」（同上 全体会議）

まえがき  この研究成果報告書に掲載した2本の論文は、どちらも現代アメリカ先住民文学を、「母 親像」に着目して、アメリカ文学全体の枠組みの中に位置付けようとする試みである。1 970年代以降、いわゆるエスニックの作家、特に女性の活躍が目覚しく、それにともな ってエスニック作家の研究も盛んになると同時に、ともすれば白人中産階級中心のきらい があったフェミニズム理論も刺激をうけ、深みと広がりを増してきている。そのような理 論上の動きが逆に小説や詩などを創作する側にも影響を与えてきたこともまた明らかであ る。  このような時代に立ち会うことができるのは、アメリカ文学研究を志す者としてはまこ とに幸せなことであると感じると同時に、、その動きのあまりの速さに圧倒される思いもあ る。本報告書の第一章は、エスニックの作家における「母性」表象を論じる際の理論的枠 組みとして、主に英米圏を中心に発達した母親論を概観し、その批判的応用の可能性にっ いて論じた。第二章は先住民作家レスリー・マーモン・シルコウを、黒人作家トニ・モリ ソンと比較、並列しつつ、第一章に述べたような枠組みの中での分析の可能性について論 じたものである。 先住民作家レズリー・マーモン・シルコウの『死者の暦』は先にのべたような時代をあま すところなく反映していると同時に、普遍の文学的価値をも備えた傑作である。完成させ た論文は、その魅力と深みのごく一部を論じたものに過ぎず、今後、今回着手した研究を いっそう深めて、より大きな論文を完成させる予定である。  最後になるが、完成度や内容において至らない論文であるとはいえ、その完成には目米 両国の多ぐの方にお世話になった。埼玉大学教養学部の同僚の方々、目本アメリカ学会の 会員の方々、インディアナ大学でお世話になった方々など、氏名の列挙は避けるが、ここ に感謝の意を表したい。 平成十四年二月 研究代表者  杉山直子

Maternal Subjectivities in Multicultural the Late Maternal 20th Century: Discourse(s)

Toward

the

What is the relationship between motherhood and

creativity? What kind of mechanism is working when a mother

writes and speaks as a subject? These have been major

concerns of feminist scholars in general and feminist literary

critics in particular for over a quarter of a century now.

Feminist scholarship on mother figures and maternal

discourse has been influenced by Freudian psychoanalytic

theory, while shifting the focus of attention from the oedipal

father-child relationship to the pre-oedipal mother'child

relationship.

_{This can be seen, for example, in Nancy}

Chodorow's influential Beproductjon of Motherjng. Adrienne

Rich, in her Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Instjtutjon and

Experjence and other essays, has emphasized the importance of

mother-daughter relationships _as the _prototype of

women-to-women nurturing and affectionate relationships and, thus, the source of female creativity. Those who are generally

called "French feminists," namely Julia Kristeva, Helene

Clxous, and Luce lrigaray, in spite of their differences, share

theoretical base on Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytical

and linguistic theories. They emphasize the importance of the

pre-oedipal mother-child relationship, and have been

influential in American feminist scholarship. Julia Kristeva

has been especially attractive to those who focus on

motherhood and discourse since she presents the maternal as

the source of poetic language and subversive power.

In the 1980s femlnlsts' interests in mothers as subjects

motherhood from a mothers polnt of vlew. Many scholars

pointed out that the discourse on mothers and mother-child

relationship to be disproportionately child-centric. In a

feminist context, these texts were mostly written from a

daughter's point of view, and tended to present mothers as

either helpless victims of the patriarchal system or

domineering agent of the same system.

In either case,

daughter writers or critics were often critical, if not outright

hostile, toward their mothers and mother figures.1) Marianne Hirsch, in her MotherlDaughter Plot: Narratjve. Psychoana]ysjs. Femjnjsm, questions why mothers' stories are seldom told from

the mothers' point of view. Why, she asks, we know Oedipus'

story but not his mother Jocasta's story from her own point of

. Hirsch points out that in Euro Amerlcan cultural

view?

tradition, women tend to speak and write as daughters more

than they do as mothers, and that what Hirsch calls "maternal

dlscourse" has indeed been scarce among literary works and

feminist scholarship. Hirsch reports that she herself

experlenced "the llmlted range of volces culturally available"

when a group of feminist scholars tried to speak as mother s

(26).

Why have women be more eloquent as daughters than as

mothers? Why this absence of maternal voice in literature and criticism? One answer that immediately comes to mind is that

few mothers, until recently, have had enough time and energy to write. T111le Olsen s S1]ences a collection of historical

evidences and women's biographical data demonstrates how

women writers had been silenced by physical burden of

housework, giving birth, and childrearing. Sandra Gilbert and

Susan Gubar, jn Madwoman jn the Attjc, point out the social

norm imposed upon women which they themselves often

internalize: that women should not write, or If they do,

motherhood and serious writing should not be pursued

simultaneously.

S u s a n S u I e i m a n i n h e r 1 jskjng Wh o 012 e Is .'

En co un ters wjth Con tem p ora fy Art al7 d L j t era t ure

argues that both mothers and children share the sense

that a mother has "ultlmate responslblllty" for the

chlld Because of thls when a woman artist speaks as a

mother, she tends to have a strong sense of guilt to the

extent to feel, "[w]lth every word I wrlte wlth every

metaphor, with every act of genulne creatlon, I hurt my

chlld" (33) Thls sense of gullt makes It dlfflcult for

her to express herself, and when she does express

herself as a mother, causes her subjectivity to split in

two (22). The maternal narrative itself, moreover, often

takes a form of Infantlclde fantasy Sulelman argues

that Rosellen Brown's short story "Good Housekeeplng "

h e r n o v e I Th e A u to b jogra ph y o f My Mo th er, M a ry

Gordon's novel Men and Angels are examples of this

split subjectivity in mother narratives.

Barbara

Johnson, also paying attention to this split in maternal

subjectivity, offers another explanation drawing from

Animation, and Abortlon. Focusing on the mechanism

''

of apostrophe in lyric poetry, and comparing the voices

of male and female poets addressing a child, Johnson

also refers to the writing mothers' sense of guilt. She

states that "[it] Is as though male wrltlng were by

nature procreative, while female writing is somehow by

nature infanticidal" (705). She further argues that

all human discourse originates in an infant's call to its

'

ar easier and common to write

mother, and, thus, it Is

as a child than as a mother (706). Another good

example of this split subjectivity of a mother in Kim

Chernin's The Woman Who Gave Bjrth to Her Mother

that documents the lives of eight women as daughters

and as mothers, including Chernin's own life story.

As

the title shows, however, the women in this book,

including Chernin, identify themselves primarily as

daughters, even when they talk about their parenting

"glving birth."

experiences or even about '

Hirsch, however, argues that mothers' voices represented in literature, such as in Toni Morrison's Be]oved and in Allce Walker's short story "Everyday Use," should be listened to more closely. This attention, she claims, may liberate us from the Freudian framework that forces the limited, binary pattern of

attachment and domination in human relationships. Her

critique of daughter (child)-centric psychoanalytical theory and

her urge to go beyond that framework and to take historical and political aspects of motherhood into consideration have

been shared by many contemporary feminist theorists and

literary critics. For example, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar in No Man's Land Vo]ume 3: Letters from the Front, point out the emergence of "mother writers" in contemporary literature

in a historically unprecedented way. They demonstrate that

mothers' silence has more to do with socially and culturally

specific circumstances rather than _some universal

psychological elements (pn).

Susanna Walters in her Ljves

Toge th er,

WorJds Apart,

which '

_Is

concerned with

mother-daughter relationships in films, also argues for

focusing on mothers as subjects and for going beyond the

psychoanalytical framework. Suleiman, while defending

psychoanalytic perspective as useful, also admits that social and historical elements should be taken into consideration. A more detailed analysis of the concept of motherhood, and more

careful consideration of diversity within "experience," are thus

needed. This attention could help us to und rstand differences between mothers and different kind of maternal subjectivities in terms of race, ethnicity, class, and diverse historical and cultural backgrounds.

. Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born.' Motherhood as

Experjence and Instjtutjon undoubtedly had a groundbreaking impact by questioning the concept of motherhood through an

analysis of its two aspects that the title suggests, but now we

are aware that "experience" is not a monolithic entity

perceived or shared by all. Nor "institution," Rich's term for the set of Ideologies that constitute the ideals women should

live up to, treat all mothers equally. Furthermore, experience,

although potentially subversive of false consciousness, should not always be juxtaposed with "institution." Our experience, or rather, our way of perceiving what is happening, is shaped

by ideologies to a large extent.

We llve In the age In whlch rapid bio-technological

changes force us to be aware that the concept of motherhood

itself is a social and cultural construct that is susceptible to

transition. More critics, including Hirsch, have been paying

attention to the possibility that technological and legal

changes in reproductive practlces, which have made possible

artificial insemination, surrogate motherhood, and even cloning=

may alter the discourse of gender in general and the discourse

of motherhood in particular, especially after the case of

so called "Baby M". While the majority of feminists today seem

to dismiss Shulamith Firestone's theory that technological

reproduction would be a step toward gender equality by

liberating women from the burden of pregnancy and birthing,

today's swift and drastic bio-technological, gynecological, and legal changes seem to have materialized Firestone's vision of

non-motherhood, at least on a hypothetical level.

As Margrit Shildrick and many others point out,

motherhood today is being fragmented into "biological mother," "egg donor " "surrogate mother " "contract mother " "nurturing

mother," "legal mother," and so on. Many describe this

situation as typically "postmodern," meaning the maternal

subjectivity, which had been thought to be more stable than all

other identities, being fragmented and de-centered. Also

considered postmodern is the situation in which the unified

medical or legal ethic on reproduction seemingly dissipating

Into "anythlng goes" commercially based practices of ARTs

(Assisted reproductive technologies). 2)

Judith Roof's Beproductjon of Beproductjon exemplifies

the posltlve slde of postmodern motherhood. She argues that

new biotechnological practices, including DNA testing, carry

the posslblllty of subvertlng metaphorical

the

"Law-of-the-Name-of-the-Father" by reducing "fatherhood" from a culturally constructed concept based on patriarchal social

system to a mere biological "fact" 3) While Roof is mainly

concerned with representations of fathers in popular culture

and literature, her argument that connects changes in

reproductive practices with linguistic and representational

practices in the domain of the Symbolic might prove useful in understanding motherhood and maternal voices in literature.

Also, as Dion Farquhar argues in The Other Machlne

Dls co urs e a n d Be pro d u c tl ve Tech n olog jes, b e c a u s e o f

multiplicity of the meaning of motherhood, we are now ready to focus on the conceptual aspect of motherhood, not necessarily entangled with physical aspects and images such as gestation,

lactation, bodily fluids, and so on. One may argue that the

recent fragmentation of the concept of "motherhood" may make

it more difficult for the maternal subject to express herself, if not impossible, but at the same time, it may stimulate creative

and critical incentive for new kind of maternal voices.

As Valerie Hartuouni suggests in her "Reproductive

Technologies and the Negotiation of Public Meanings: The Case

of Baby M," however, this postmodern reality of motherhood does not necessarily liberate women from the confinement of

strictly defined gender roles into multiple possibilities in their

. Nor does it automatically lead women or men into

lives

"conceptualizing" playfully diversified maternal images or more

gender neutral utopian visions. When "the mother" is not a

stable or unified concept but is split into fragmented entities,

who is and should be the most legitimate or most suitable

mother is likely to be determined within the patriarchal power

structure, although in more rhetorically and theoretically sophisticated ways to malntaln '

ierarchy based on gender,

race, and class. .

For example let us conslder the term "mental

conception," newly created in the result of the well-discussed

and documented "Baby M" case. Andrea E. Stumpf, in Ya]e

Law Joulna] in 1986, in favor or the commercially arranged

surrogacy, introduced the term as the first of the four states in

a surrogacy arrangement. She explains, "[p] rior to physical conception of a child, the beginnings of a normal parent-child

relationship can come from mental conception, the desire to

create a chlld "(190) In thls case fragmenting the process of

conception and birth, and creating a new "concept" in due

course, are both done for the sole purpose of justifying the

also biologically kin to the baby. With the Western

philosophical tradition of dichotomizing the mental and the

physical, and privileging the former over the latter intact, the

fragmentation of motherhood only benefits the party that has

initiated the contract In thls case the father 4) These

bio-technological advancement offer not a new and wlder range

of life styles and identity opportunities, but patriarchal surveillance and dominance over the most private and minute

details of our lives. The recent arguments and debates

explicitly show how the concept of motherhood, the very

identity that had been supposed to include every woman, at

least potentially, regardless of race, class or other societal

factors, in fact, contain many different aspects, and that it can

be and has been ideologically modified, defined, and

manipulated.

In the newly developed gyno-technological concepts, the

idea of male pregnancy and the discourse on that idea

demonstrate along with the issue of surrogate motherhood that

these technological advancements may still submit to and

Male pregnancy, while at

reinforce traditional ideologies.

this moment still only a bio-technological possibility not yet materialized, may seem to be the ultimate advancement toward a feminist future that brings about gender equality, but this technology by itself may confirm, rather than deconstruct, the existent power structure based on gender, race, and class. It may evoke the most nightmarish portrait of gestation, birth,

and the relatlonshlp between the pregnant and the

Impregnator.

Octavia Butler, in her science fiction story "Bloodchlld "

which she claims to be "my male pregnancy story," presents such a gloomy and painful situation, in which eroticism and love is entangled with abhorrence and masochlstlc sense of self-sacrlflce under an uncontrollable power Imbalance The

story takes place on a planet that is inhabited by a

scorpion-like species called the Tlic. There is a small colony of

earthlings who have taken refuge there, and in exchange with

the Tlic's acceptance and tolerance toward the newcomers, the humans have to have the Tlic's eggs implanted in their bodies

and "host" them to term. The process of taking out the young from the human body, extremely painful and often lethal to

host's life, is described in bloody details from the viewpoint of

Gan, an adolescent boy. The story describes how Gan, while

horrified by the prospective pain and risk, nonetheless chooses

to accept the egg to be implanted in his body by T'Gatoi, the

Tlic government official in charge of the human colony.

While Butler subtly describes the affectionate tie between Gan

and T'Gatoi and the sense of ecstasy and pride the boy

experiences by being chosen by this particular alien, the image

of his pregnancy is nonetheless horrifying, more closely

associated with subordination and death rather than mutual

affection, sexual pleasure, or life. Many readers, as Elyce Rae

Helford points out in "'Would You Really Rather Die Than Bear

Octavia E. Butler s Bloodchlld"' read thls story as "a story of

slavery," and persuasively so, I would argue, although Butler herself denies it (Butler 30). 5) The humans' situation in the story parallels with slavery in which a woman has no control of her own reproductive capacity, not to say her sexuality. Under

such circumstances, as the story well illustrates, whatever

"cholce" that a slave woman was allowed to have, it must have

been entwlned wlth horror resentment the sense of

self sacrlflce, distorting affection and sexual desire, if there

was any. As Helford points out, although T'Gatoi tries to

evade the issue, the overwhelming imbalance of power between two species makes the implant of her egg into Gan's body "an

acquaintance rape" (264), brought about by manipulation and

coercion. In fact, Gan consents only after T'Gatoi threatens that if he refuses she will use Xuan Hoa hls slster as a host It is telling that this so far the most well known "pregnant

man" story in the science fiction genre is so full of violence and

domination/subordination struggle. It demonstrates how

multiplicity and diversity in the concept and practlce of

motherhood is not necessarlly llberatlng but may "reproduce" and "nurture" the exlstlng power structure

I am tempted to add another example here seemlngly

more light-hearted than "Bloodchild" but none the less

shocking because it comes not as a science fiction piece but

wlthln a plece JOurnallsm Nor Is this intended as a

sado-masochistic fantasy but rather it is meant as a moment of

Dick Teresi makes in his essay "How to Get a Man Pregnant".

He claims that his earlier article on the subject of possible

male pregnancy in Omnj magazine, 1985, inspired the idea of

the film "Junlor," in which Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes

pregnant. He states:

This knowledge has changed my life, especially my daily

workouts at a body-builder's gym that has a decor that can only

be described as 'early Schwarzenegger,' Photographs of the

half-naked muscle man adorn the walls like icons. I've always

imagined him looking down condescendingly at my poor biceps

as I struggle with the dumb-bell.

But now I think to myself: ' Go ahead and smirk, Arnold. I'm

the guy who got you pregnant' (pn).

By getting Schwarzenegger, the symbol of mascullne power per exce]]ence, pregnant, the author feels that he in some way

wins ahd thus proves himself more masculine than

Schwarzenegger. In this instant, getting someone pregnant is

the pure sign of dominance; nowhere is present the deslre for a

baby or for an intimate human relationship.

What then do we flnd In maternal discourse by

women who are nelther whlte nor mlddle class other

than Butler's gloomy representatlon of motherlng?

i n Mo th er/Da ugh tel P]o t,

"Everyday Use" as examples of maternal discourse, but

she does not explore the reason why her examples are

both wrltten by Afrlcan Amerlcan women. Barbara

Johnson s "Apostle , Anlmatlon and Abortlon" also

quotes Gwendolyn Brooks and Lucille Clifton, but she

does not discuss their ethnic specificity except as the

reason for more intensified sense of guilt in Cliffton,

explalnlng "[fior a black woman the loss of a baby can

always be perceived as a complicity with genocide (703)

6)

Do Afrlcan American women find their experiences

as mothers drastically different from white women's,

and do they find it less difficult to express themselves

in a maternal voice? And if so, why?

Mary Helen Washington argues in "I Sign My

Mother's Name: Alice Walker, Dorothy West. Paule

Marshall," African American women have a matrlllneal

tradition that encourages women's creativity. Black

mothers represent the community's oral traditions.

Writing fiction is the literary counterpart of their

traditions. The African American women's tradition,

moreover, has the African American slave mother such

as Linda Brent, whose narrative's theme is the

Thus,

mother-child bond as its important part.

Washington suggests, they do not have to feel that

not useful, however, just to assume that women of

non-white ethnicities have better maternal traditions

than their white counterparts and we all have to look

for an alternative model in their cultures.

We should

be aware of dangers involved in a search through other

cultures, conducted in the dim light of nostalgia, for a

ready made alternative model of motherhood or ideal

stage of mother-child relationship. While I agree that

the white middle class norms of mothers are by no

means universal or useful for other groups I also see

the simplified cultural relativism as doubtful and

sometimes harmful to women within and without those

"diversified" groups.

There is always a danger that a minority woman's

hardship is made invisible, condescendingly overlooked

or tolerated as "culturally different," or made "exotlc"

under a romanticized gaze.7) Michelle Wallace vividly

describes such an instance in Black Macho and the

Myth of the Superwoman: a male black intellectual,

witnessing on TV a black woman with small children,

obviously in poverty and in lack of sufficient housing,

clothing, or any skIIls to support herself or her

children, comments that she is " a strong sister" and

he" "bow[s] hls head In reverence" (109)

I also doubt the legitimacy of the "Imperial nostalgia" that regards motherhood which is outside of the white middle

mothers than white women because of their simple-mindedness

and their closeness to nature and children abounds in colonial

European and European American discourse. One of the best

examples of this fallacy is seen in Lafcadio Hearn's novel Youma (1868), in which a West Indian slave woman chooses to

sacrifice herself for the sake of her master's white daughter. These West Indian women, the narrator of the novel explains, are better mothers than the children's own white mothers when

the children are small, because their nature is more simple and

childlike, and therefore more fit to answer the children's emotional needs than white women are. Looking for an ideal

mother in a different culture may be another way of cultural

imperialism that does not bring about mutual understanding

but further marginalization of minority groups.

The relative proliferation of maternal discourse by

African American women, nor women of other ethnic minorities

does not necessarily mean that they have had more coherent

and monollthlc "maternal self" than whlte women. On the

contrary, minority women, and especlally mlnorlty mothers

may be said to have their subjectivity split in much harsher ways than their white counterparts. In fact, many argue that so-called women of color, who have emerged as productive and

Innovatlve writers in the Unlted States embody a

"post-modern" reality most thoroughly and ambitiously.

African Americans such as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker,

Asian Americans such as Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan,

to name a few, immediately come to mind. Their works,

however, have often been read as the expression of lived

experiences or as documentation of specific cultures useful for

sociological analysis but not for theoretical or philosophical

insights which are relevant to the larger society.8) It is more

and more obvious that their works embody the fragmented and decentered self that is often attributed only to white male

postmodern theorists and creative writers. Fictional works by

women of color, and especially their fictional representation of

motherhood, can even be viewed as the most ambitious and

representative examples of postmodern American literature in the last two decades. While critics have tended to look for

typical examples of literary postmodernism in such authors as

John Barth. Thomas Pynchon, and Donald Barthelme, some

critics claim that postmodernism and postmodern theory have

much to contribute to and gain from the discourses of

marginalized cultures, such as those of ethnic minorities, the

working classes, and women

For example, in her essay "Postmodern "

Blackness,

bell hooks advocates the importance of postmodern

theory but clalms that while postmodern theorists are

and "Otherness, they

c o n c e r n e d w I t h " d i f f e r e n c e " "

ignore the existence and contribution of African

Americans, especially black women. Hooks claims that

not only is postmodern theory relevant to African

American experiences and culture, but "the overall

share wlth black folks a sense of deep alienation,

despair, uncertainty, Ioss of a sense of grounding even

if it is not informed by shared circumstance" (27).

She criticizes white male postmodern theorists who

"speak to and about one another with coded familiarity"

(24), and proposes an alternative radical postmodernist

practice, which will "incorporate the voices of

displaced, marginalized, exploited, and oppressed black

people" (25).

In accordance with hooks, Phillip Brian Harper, in

h i s Fra m jng th e Ma rg jn s : Th e So c ja I L og jc o f

Postmodern Cu]ture, focuses on race, class and gender

as crucial elements in comprehending postmodern

He demonstrates that so-called

literary discourse.

postmodern characteristics, such as fragmentation and

decenteredness, have been severely felt, and in fact

acutely represented, by white women writers such as

Anais Nin and African American male and female

writers such as Ralph Ellison and Gwendolyn Brooks.

As Harper states in his analysis of Gwendolyn Brooks'

poem "Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon, While

Brownsville Mother Loiters" and her novel Maude

Martha, black motherhood represented in these works

does not show, as some crltlcs have clalmed the

universality of maternal feelings and the possibility of

black and white women's solidarity through their

common maternal identity. Rather In "Mississippi

Mother," Brooks Juxtaposltlon of a whlte and a black

mother succeeds In lllustratlng the "variety and

specificity of experiences that constitute the array of

subjectivities in the social body of the United States"

(103). Brooks, thus, exposes the falseness of an

ostensible universality of maternal experience (103).

In Maude Martha as well, the protagonist's anger seems

to be presented as universally maternal, since it is

articulated most explicitly when a Santa Claus in a

department store ignores her daughter.

Harper points

out, however, that Maude's anger is maternal but also

racialized as well, because it is against the racist

attitude of the Santa Claus, who is friendly and

attentive to white children while maliciously ignoring

a black girl. He suggests that Maude's subjectivity is

fragmented because it is a maternal subjectivity: her

anger is always suppressed and is allowed to surface

"only when she proJects It away from herself and into

the context of another s exp erlence" ( 1 1 4) . He also

points out that this fragmented anger is racially

specific, and as such, it is expressed only in the least

threatening form to the exlstlng soclal structure

namely, as deslre to partlclpate in the "mainstream"

economy as a consumer (115).

If contemporary motherhood is fragmented and even more

them to represent maternal subJectlvlty? How can one

overcome a painful split, that Suleiman, Hirsch, and Johnson

all attribute to maternal subjectivity to express anything other

than overpowering sense of guilt or infanticide fantasies?

J a n e F I a x , i n Th jnking Fragm en ts, r e f e r s t o b o r d e r I i n e

syndrome patients, who lack "a core self without which the registering of and pleasure in a variety of experiencing of

ourselves, others, and the outer world are simply not possible."

She criticizes the postmodernists who celebrate fragmentation

or de centerlng of self as "self deceptlvely nalve" (218) and she

argues that one needs "core self" in order to experience

fragmentation or the space in which differences are bracketed

or elided. . How can a maternal discourse, without

suppressing multiplicity or fragmentation within itself, also

maintain this "core self"'

Contemporary ethnic women authors such as Maxine Hong

Kingston, Toni Morrison, and Leslie Marmon Silko exploit the

possibility of the new kind of maternal discourse, which

represents fragmented and de-centered contemporary realities. At the same time each author succeeds in creating a unified, though not monolithic, worldview in her fictional work. While

their writing careers extend over thirty years and they have so

far created a substantial body of work, much of which is

relevant to my argument, Trjpmaster Monkey' Hjs Fake Book by

Kingston, Paradjse by Morrison, and The A]manac of the Dead

tryingtomake．      These novels are not only their more recent productions，but t五ey also demonstrate the authors’ awareness of the use of the maternal in their narratives，and I would，argue that they use it more successfully in these novels than in their other works． I will examine these three novels and how they employ matern段1discourse in plo亡s，character developments， their narrative structure，and cultural backgroun（is。 Here I use the word“maternal discourse”mainly in two ways． First，maternal discourse is a narrative about a mother written from a motheゼs poinむof view． This makes it possible to present a variety of maternal realities，including such acts as abuse and desertion， without falling back on the mo孕01ithic condemnation of 、less−than−ideal mothers as morally“bad”or psychologically“sick．” Since maternal behaviors may be overdetermined by cultura1，historica1，and political specificities，along with the subject7s psychological inclinations and personal traits，the presentation of various mothers’stories in itself may powerfully portray the fragmentation and decenteredness of today’ssociety．     Second，by maternal discourse I refer to＆narrative that evokes and relis on authoritative female figures who are not just women characters that h＆ve authoritative power over other c五aracters but also female figures that have symbolic power”in

other words, female deities. I world argue that Kingston,

Morrison, and Silko, by doing so, create narratives that unify

fragmented and de-centered small parts and splits into a larger

.

y evoking the maternal as authority, maternal

whole

discourse by these authors are used as a narrative strategy

that gives fragmented reality a unified vision without glossing

over or suppresslng dlfferences, not presenting a linear,

monollthic master narrative.

Before analyzing how each author attempts to achieve it, however, it will be necessary to explore how the concepts of mother as spiritual and religious symbols have been discussed

in recent feminist scholarship.

Ruddick and others polnt out that when we talk about fathers we talk about a posltlon symbol status and rlghts but when we talk about mothers, we talk about physicality,

lactation, fluids, and maternal body (pn). This is certainly

understandable and probably in

a necessary step

deconstructing the privileging of mind over body in Western It is also a cautious move against perceiving

philosophy.

mothers as stereotypes based on a biological essentialism, that

is confining and oppressive for women rather than liberating

and empowering. Martha Albertson Fineman, in The Neutered

Mo th er, th e Sex u a I Fa m jly a n d O th er Twen t je th Cen t u ry

Tragedjes, warns against such danger in discussing mothers as symbols (71,2). On the other hand, there is also an awareness

that discourse on motherhood focuses too much on physicality and emotional experiences and not enough attention is paid to

the spiritual and symbolic level. For example, Bonnie J

M11ler McLemore In "Ideals and Realities of Motherhood: a

Theological Perspective," argues that we should pay more

attention to spiritual and religious aspects of maternal

experiences (282).

In Modern]st Madonl2a Sel2710tlcs of the MaternaJ

Metaphor, Jane Silvermann Van Buren emphasizes the

importance of the mother as a symbol, the image of Mother

Goddess more specifically, for 19th century creatlve women

She tries to do so however by drawlng from the French "trlo"

of Luce lrigaray, Elene Cixous, and Julia Kristeva. Va n

Buren argues that they try to subvert the patriarchal hierarchy by emphasizing the importance of the pre-Oedipal mother-child

relationship and the maternal. Thus, she falls into the

same dichotomy that these French feminists claim to be

deconstructing. In arguing for the importance or even

superiority of the maternal over the paternal in discourse, the

dichotomy of the maternal as physical and the paternal as

symbolic is in fact reinforced.

Luce lrigaray, however, moves out of this framework in

her controverslal essay "Dlvlne Woman " in which she argues

for a religious image of women. Relying on Feuerbach's

argument in The Orjgjn of Chrjstjanjty that men created God in

their own image in order to secure their subjectivity, she

have to have God in our image. She argues that the trinity of

God the Mother, Daughter, and the spirit is necessary.

While lrigaray does not offer any concrete image of this

alternatlve "God the Mother" or point out any possible resource

where we may find Her, this essay has the power to stimulate

our visionary imagination to search for a possible subversion of

the patriarchal status quo in the symbolic realm. In fact, her

desire to invoke a female deity is shared by many feminists both within and without academia, who are often associated

with a somewhat vague category of "Goddess Worship."

Goddess worship seems to be often ridiculed or dismissed as a product of dubious scholarship or feeble-minded wishful

thinking. This condescending dismissal of Goddess worship

both in scholarship and as in practice can be exemplified by

Bruce Thornton's essay "The False Goddess and Her Lost

. latantly hostile toward feminists in academia in

Paradise "

general and more specifically women's studies department,

white middle class lesbians in their thirties and forties who are allegedlyy overrepresented in these supposedly privileged

places as well as the Goddess worshipping population, he

attacks Goddess worship as something that we should dismiss

as "another transitory New Age fad flourishing amount the

tabloid semiliterate."(72) He criticizes pre-historic European

Goddess as Implauslble as "New Age tabloid spiritualists or

psychic hotline advlsors " (78)

worship, especially the efforts to reclaim the pre-historic

European Goddess, is also shared by feminist scholars who are more sympathetic with women's attempt to find an alternative

to established rellglons and a posslble candldate for the

"Divine Woman." For example, feminist Catholic theologian

Rosemary Radford Reuther, in her Womangujde: Beadjngs

toward a Femjnjst Theo]ogy, which introduces various religious texts and practices that may be used to empower women within

the broadly defined Christian tradition, warns against

searching through traditions other than one's own. She also

points out the impossibility of creating a totally new image of

goddess (xi). Mary Jo Weaver, in her essay "Who is Goddess and Where Does She Get Us?" also lays out the problematic of what is usually defined as "Goddess worship." She overviews

the debates over the present practices and beliefs of Goddess feminism, and states that she herself is not drawn to Goddess

worship. Weaver, however, claims that Goddess feminism may

have much to offer through its radical challenge to the

standard religions, its willingness to hold dear religions as

realities in d Lily life, and its quest for utopian visions. It is

significant that Weaver and others who are sympathetic toward

religious feminists and often themselves are reformists and

radical spiritualists emphasize pluralism, tolerance, and the

possibility of corroboration among women of different religious

beliefs, while they themselves may be committed to a certain

monotheist faith.

more tolerant toward different practices and interpretations within their religion and toward （1ifferent religions in their worldview。They are all aware of the white appropriation and commodification of non・white cultures and ‘‘spiritua．1ities．” But instead of dismissing the fake“pretenders”or presenting traditionally authentic religions that are inaccessible to the outsiders，they choose to create an all・inclusive symbolic order， using the authoritative maternal as its core．       I would argue that Kingston，Morrison，and Silko are successful in representing the visionary image that Irigaray 皿ges but does not demonstrate except as＆n abstract concept． In the fictional works I will discuss，the authors are trying to create a visionary world in which the Divine Woman，or rather， the divine women，are the base of the spiritual and social lives ofwomen and men．       Kingston relies on Chinese religious texts and folk beliefs，as well as classic Chinese literary works，which are themselves plumlistic an（1international in their origins． She draws from other multi−cultura1＆nd multi・national resources available to her，段 second generation Chinese American who grew up in Califomia and gra（1uated from UC Berkeley in the 60s。   She retells， reinterprets， and revises the aspects of Chinese American culture that can support an（1 nourish women7s spirituality and authority。 Her use ofKwan Yin，the Buddhist deity who is often perceived as maternal is especially significant．  Morrison consciously scrutinizes， reinterprets， and revises the Bible，relyFing on recent scholarship in religious

history, most notably Elaine Pagels' Gnostic GospeJs, which

supports the image of female deities within the Christian

framework. She also brings in the polytheistic Afro-Brazilian religion called Candombre, the mixture of African and American

indigenous religions merged with Catholicism. Morrison

highlights Yemanja, one of the major Candombre deities, who is often associated with the Virgin Mary, as a dominant image in

Paradjse. Silko relies on her own Laguna Pueblo traditional

theology, in which important gods are female and often

presented as maternal. She creates a utopian vision from an indigenous point of view in which even the most ridiculous

white European appropriation and commodification of

indigenous religions and New Age practices is part of the

historical vision, a move toward the time when the Mayan

prophecy is fulfilled.

When we have strong mother figures and maternal

goddesses, what happens to fathers? If we do not have a

patriarch, or the God-the-Father, what alternatives do we have for fathers and father figures? As Kyeong-Hee Choi argues in

her "When a Colonized Mother Speaks," postcolonial maternal

discourses often highlight the situation in which a father is

absent or dysfunctional if he is physically present. In the

colonized households, husbands and fathers may be absent for

various reasons. They may be away from home fighting in

resistance, already dead, missing, in prison, or they may have disappeared under the pressure of family responsibility in the

midst of economic and other hardships in a colonized society.

Or they may be dysfunctional for having been dep.rived of their

competence as breadwinners or patriarchal authority by the colonizers. I think it is important that Choi describes the

situation in which, if a man fails to be a patriarch, he silnply

stops to exist as a father. While few may agree with Daniel

Patrick Moynihan that the Black family, because of its

matriarchal tradition, Iacks a role model for boys and therefore

fails to produce strong and responsible adult men, it is true

that men among ethnic minority groups are more likely to be

under physical, economic, political, and psychological pressure

than their white middleclass counterparts, thus, stimulating fathers to be absent in Choi's sense. Many feminist scholars

point out that defining fatherhood as power and money makes

it unachievable to many men of disadvantaged groups, and

often causes men's hostility toward women and children whose

presence makes them feel incompetent Mlchelle Wallace

analyzes this mechanism in Black Macho and The Myth of the

Superwoman and concludes that Black Power movement failed

because it put emphasis on black men's achieving "manhood,"

which was defined by their power to dominate women, thus

alienating many women from the movement. A role model for

minority fathers, therefore, should not be the patriarch that

American mainstream culture still presents as an ideal.lo)

In Neutered Mothers Flneman argues that It Is more

realistic to think of a mother and her children, rather than a two adult couple, as a core family unit. In this scheme, adult

men may be included in a family as the mother's child, brother, uncle, and so on. But social programs such as welfare will work

better if we choose to focus on the vertical mother-child

relationship as a core rather than on couples as a norm.

Her argument Is based on Sarah Burdick's concept of

motherhood which she explains in her Materna] Thjnkjng:

toward a Po]jtjcs ofPeace. She proposes that we should define

mothers not by any prescriptive ideas but by the work that

committed child-rearlng requlres Thus anyone who devotes

substantial energy, time, and other resources and takes

responsibility for a child's healthy development and welfare

should be called a mother, regardless of that person's age, sex,

or a biological relationship to the child. She goes on to say

that we do not need "fathers," slnce "fatherhood" is defined as

status and rights, whereas "motherhood" Is defined as

responsibility and work

The proposition of Fineman and Ruddick that we do not

need fathers, obviously, does not mean that adult men are not

wanted within a household, or the child's biological father

should not live with or take care of her or him.

Rather,

Ruddick's recommendation means that we need a new model for a male parent which is not authoritarian, domineering, and

whose competence does not depend solely on his financial power

and social status. This role model should be more nurturing

and lovlng and at the same time, responsible.

Whether we accept the proposition of Fineman and

will require a new model of a male parenthood, and I would

argue that Kingston, Morrison, and Silko also seek a new

vision that includes fathers. They do not present a monolithic

"Mother Earth" that may slmply replace "God the Father"

They present, borrowing Fineman's expression, "socletles of

empowered women, peaceful men, and strong goddesses" (157).

Notes

1) For the hostility toward mothers and mother figures wlthln

feminist discourse, see Hlrsch 164 67 Also, Jane Flax's

"The Confllct between Nurturance and Autonomy in

Mother/Daughter Relationships

and within

Feminism"(Femjnjst Studies 4.1(1978): 171-89) is one of the

early examples that point out the daughterly hostility

toward mothers within feminist discourse. For the

crltlclsm of chlld (daughter) centrlclty in femlnlst

scholarship, see Jane Gallop "Reading the Mother Tongue: Psychoanalytic Feminist Criticism"(Crjtjca] InqUjry 13.1,

1987) 314-29.

2) See Dion Farquhar The Other Machjne' Djscourse and

Beproductjve Techno]ogjes (New York: Routledge, 1996) 189, for

this point.

3) Sara Ruddlck analyzes and then crltlques the dlchotomy of

"fact" and "concept" of fatherhood In her "Thinking about

Fathers" (Marianne Hirsch & Evelyn Fox Keller, eds. ConfJjcts in Femjnjsm. Routledge, 1990) 222 233

4)See also Stephanie Coontz' The Way We Never Were: Amerjcal7 Famj]jes and the Nosta]gja Trap. Discussing the expanded and

more flexible definition of family relationships, Coontz

introduces the idea that the wife of the biological father (who

made a contract with the surrogate mother), by waiting and

planning for the baby for nine months, may be also considered an "expectant mother" (3). Thus, she suggests that women also

may benefit from privileging of the mental over the physical.

5) Rae Helford's essay is so far the most detailed readlng of

"Bloodchild" as a metaphor of American slavery. Afrjcan

Amerjcan Revjew, 28.2. 259-271 (Summer 1994).

6)Hlrsch brlefly mentlons the "relatlve absence of

fathers" and black women s "letting go of male

paternal, fraternal, or filial approval" because of the

marginality of the African American community itself

(177). I do not find this explanation either satisfactory

or historically accurate. I would say that both Hirsch

make

and

generalization in their respective comment on African

American women writers.

7) See, for example, Okin's mention of the murder case,

small children and attempted suicide, ironically shows

the Westernized distortion of non-Western cultures.

While I agree with her argument that violation of

women's rights should not be excused by claiming

cultural relativism, I am aghast by her explanation of

the case. She states that "by being so shamed and

branded such a failure by his infidelity that she Is

driven to kill herself and her children". I am certaln

that no one In Japan Is convlnced by thls Western

fantasy of samurai minded and subservient wives

8) For this point, see for example Margaret Homans

"'Women of Color' Writers and Feminist Theory," New

Ljterary History 25 (1994), 73-94.

9) He depends much of his criticism on Cynthia E1ler's

L j vjng in th e La p o f th e Go d d ess : Th e Fem jn js t

In Amerlca that lumps

Sp jri t u a li ty Mo ve m en t '

"neopaganism, political feminism, Jewish and Christian

, , and Native American

the New Age

feminism

spiritualities" all together under the category of "the

feminist spirltuallty movement" (E1ler lx)

10)Fathers being absent Is '

ot just a phenomenon withln

minority or colonized communities. Emotionally unavailable fathers are seen as problematic in middle- or upper-middle

the mainstream father models do not work for white men. Her wide ranged interviews show that contemporary American men

look for the father models that they do not find in real life in the military, spectator sports, street culture, Christian based

men's movement, or superheroes in the movies. They become

frustrated by not finding a satisfactory role model in these

places, and in many cases they turn their frustration into

hostility and violence against women.

Works Cited

Butler Octavla. "Bloodchild." Bloodchjld and Other Storjes.

New York: Four Walls Eight Windows. 1995 1 32 Chol Kyeong hee. "When the Colonized Mother Speaks:

Post-Colonial And Maternal Narratives of Toni

Morrison, Pak Wanso, and Buchi Emecheta. Diss.

Indiana University. 1996.

Coontz, Stephanie. The Way Were Never Wele:Ameljcan

Famjljes and the Nostalgja Trap, New York: Basic

Books. 1992.

Eller, Cynthia. Ljvjng jl2 the Lag of the Goddess: The

Femjnjst spjrjtualjty Movement jn Amerjca. New York: Crossroad. 1993.

Faludi, Susan. Stjffed: The Betraya] of the Amerjcan Men.

New York: Morrow. 1999

Farquhar, Dion. The Other Machlne Dlscourse and Beprodactjve Technologjes. New York: Routledge

  1996．

Fineman，MarthaAlbertson． The Neutered Mother，the Sexual   Family，and Other Twentieth Century Trage（lies． New   York：Routledge． 1995． Flax，Jane． “The Conflict between Nurturance＆nd Autonomy   in Mother／Daughter Relationships and within Feminism”   ノ7θ加∫五fθ65「6π‘ノノθ54．1（1978）：171・89 ……一 Tゐ∫刀左iη8乃・a8加θ加5’P5アoゐ02刀∂17515．Fθ加∫刀1θ切，＆   Poθむ1ηoゴθr刀ノθヱηiη6．hθOoη孟θ1ηpora■7晩56．Berkeley：U   of California P。 1990． Hartouni，Valerie． 0π16α■∂100．ηoθp60η5’0刀丑θp■oゴα06iyθ   丁初ゐη0108iθ5aη‘16ゐθ丑θma灯η80f五ノん． Minneapolis：U．   ofMinnesota P．  1997． Helford，Elyce Rae“’Would You Really Rather Die Than Bear   My Young？ン：The Construction of Gender，Race，an（l   Species in Octavia E。Butleゼs‘Bloodchi1（1’” ∠4！ンio8刀   ∠41ηθ■i68刀ノ∼θviθ躍，28．2（Summer1994）． 259・271． Hirsch，Marianne． Mo6ゐθ■ノZ）8α8ゐ6θ■Plo6’ノ〉8■a6iyθノ   P570ゐoaη217θi5，Fθ1ηizliθη2． Bloomington：Indiana UP。

  1989．

H：omans，Margaret．“‘Women of Color’Writers and Feminist   Theory．” ハπθw Li6θ■a■7∬i3オo■y25（1994），73・94． Irigaray，Luce．  θθxθ3aηゴσθ刀θ310giθ5． 1987． Trans．    Billian C．Gil1． Yew York： Columbi＆UP 1993． MillerMcLemore，Bonnie J．“ldeals and Realities of   Motherhood： a  Theological Perspective．” Julia  E．   Hanigsberg and Sara Ruddick e（ls． ノ匠o乙hθr Trolzわノθ’

  Tゐiη左fη800η診θ加ρoハヨ■』v躍a6θ■ηθ1Z万1θ加加aθ． Boston：   Beacon．1999。281・303． Okin，Susan Moller． “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women？”   Joshua Cohen，Matthew Howard，and Martha C．   Nussb＆um，eds． 15〃冒α16ioα1加r81fθzηβθづ1b■恥加θ．ηク   Princeton：Princeton UP． 1999． 7・24． Ruddick，Sara，．Ma6θr刀al Tゐ1η左iη8’T∂w8■d7a Po！i孟io50／」Pθ∂oθ．．   Boston：Beacon． 1995． ……一 “Thinking about Fathers．”Marianne Hirsch＆   Evelyn Fox Keller，eds。Oo刀〃io孟5f刀ノ7θ加∫11i5η1，Routledge，

  1990）222・233

Ruether，Rosemary Radford． 四∂加aη8ωゴθ5’Eθ∂ゴiη《gθ60warゴ∂   Fθ1刀iηiθ6Tゐθ01087．Boston：Beacon． 1996． Stumpf，Andrea E． “Redefining Mother：A Legal Matrix for   New Reproductive Technologies．” ya1θ五￡wJoαr々21．   96． 1986．  168・ Thornton，Bruth． “The False Goddess and Her Lost Paradise．”   ！1．z・ioη’／1Joα1・刀ど∼10！’∬α加3ηiオ∫θθ3ηゴ孟ゐθ 018θ5fo5．  1999。   Spring・Summer，‘．1，72・97． Treci，Dick． “How to Get a Man Pregnant．” Tゐθσ“3■げ∫8η．

  1995．

 rマザーフッド』は近年分野をこえて様々な領域で争点となっている概念で ある。特に代理母をめぐる、いわゆる「ベビーM事件」をきっかけに、「本当」の 母親とは誰か、「母親としてふさわしい」とは何を意味するか、をめぐり、医学、 生物学、哲学、神学、法学などが論争に参入した。現在アメリカではr代理 母」ビジネスは完全に定着してしまったようだが、かつては女性のアイデンティ ティとして、ほとんど唯一無二の絶対性を持っていた「母親」という概念は、今 や少なくとも理屈の上では、「産みの母』「育ての母」「法律上の母」「卵子提 供者』「代理母」などに分裂してしまった。  ヴァレリー・ハルツー二は、生殖テクノロジーをめぐるさまざまな言説やイメー ジを読み解く著書、o〃1加r8100刀oθ．ρがo刀θにおいて代理母、依頼人夫婦 ともに白人であった「ベビーM」事件と、代理母が黒人であった「アンナ・ジョン ソン対カルバート夫婦」事件、さらに1986年にカリフォルニアで脳死状態の 女性がr出産」した際の新聞報道などを並列し、結局のところr誰が母親とし てふさわしいか』を決定する際に機能する権力構造を分析し、受胎、妊娠、 出産にいたる母親の役割を過小評価する見方、子供を親、特に父親の所 有物とする見方がこれらの事件を通底するイデオロギーであると論じる。妊娠 した女性は独立した主体ではなくいわば「歩く試験管」「胎児の育つ環境」と 定義され、したがって胎児に悪影響をおよぼしかねない飲酒、喫煙、ドラッグ 使用、自殺未遂などの行為は、自傷行為ではなく胎児に対する「殺人未 遂」とされる。また妊婦の母体に負担がかかり、明らかに死期を早める結果 が予想できようとも、胎児の安全確保が第一の優先事項とされる。  このような発想には、母親に「子供のために命も投げ出す、無私無欲の自 己犠牲」を要求する、ヴィクトリア朝型母親像と、医学テクノロジーとともに力

を得てきた、「胎児の環境』としてのみ存在意義のある物体としての妊婦のボ ディ、というふたつの一見相反するイメージが相乗りしている。そこには、妊娠 中の、胎児を自分の身体の一部として、あるいは自分の中ではぐくまれ、すで に相互的な関係を築きつつある赤ん坊として認識する、自我と、人権、独自 の欲望を持つ主体としての女性の姿がきれいに抜け落ちている。  フェミニズム批評において、近年マザーフッドの研究は様々な学問領域で 勧められてきた。しかしながらアングロ・アメリカン批評において、その多くは r家父長制イデオロギーの押しつける良い母／わるい母イメージ」と、r現実の 母親体験』を対比させ、後者にこそオーセンティシティあり、とするものである。 フレンチ・フェミニストたち、特にクリステヴァの母親論は、ラカンの枠組みを使 いながら、母親的なるものの、現状を転覆する潜在力を論じ、強い影響力を 持ったが、彼女の「母親的なるもの』は、エディプス期以降の「父の法・言語・ セオリー」と対比される前エディプス期、つまり言語以前、言語によって構築さ れる以前の混沌」を意味する。フレンチ・フェミニズムの影響をうけた母親論は、 「母親」を往々にして「母乳」イメージ、「母の身体」イメージなどの身体性と同 一視する。その結果、言語と対比される身体としての母親というイメージは、 実のところ、ハルツー二が描き出す、「自己犠牲の権化／生きている試験管」 としての母親像とグロテスクに似てきてしまうのである。   ボニー・ミラー・マクレモアは、主体としての母親を論じる際に、「イメージ」 の問題が避けられており、特に宗教的観点からの研究がほとんどなされてい ない、ということを指摘する。母親イメージは、往々にして家父長制維持に都 合の良い、女性をコントロールする装置として用いられてきたので、新たなイメ ージの提示に積極的でないのは当然のことである。しかしミラーは、現実の女 性たちはやはりなんらかの理想像やイメージを必要とするのであって、宗教に おける母親イメージの研究を避け続けるのは正しいことではない、と主張す る。

 とはいえ、西洋文化圏のフェミニスト神学者、宗教学者らが、キリスト教を 中心とする宗教における女性、特に母親のイメージについて等閑視してきた わけではないし、また信仰をよりどころとして、女性としての自己のエンパワーメ ントを求める、19世紀以来、フェミニストの中でひとつの大きな流れとして確 実に存在し、特に1970年代以降「新・異教崇拝」の一部としてその動きは 顕著であるらしい。メアり・ジョー・ウィーバーは、r女神信仰・それは我々にどう 役立つか？」という論文の中で、中西部の州立大学における講義および学 会を行った経験について基づいて、このような動きについて考察している。彼 女は、既成宗教、特にキリスト教の教義が男性中心的であることに反発し、 オルタナティブとして女神信仰や魔女信仰を実践する者が、大学院レベルで もかなりな数にのぽっていること、したがって、女神信仰や魔女信仰を「ニュー エイジ系にはまった、変わった人たちのカルト」r過渡的な現象」とのみ捕らえ ることはできず、女神信仰の提起する問題は真剣に対処されなければならな い、と主張する。また宗教学者ローズマリー・ルーサーは、r∂加θ刀8αiゴθで、 キリスト教の現在の姿が女性差別的であると主張し、それと同時に、本来キ リスト教がもっていたはずの女性解放的な面を、テキストから注意深く復元し、 それに基づいた新しい宗教実践を行っていくべきだ、と述べる。  そういう中で、女性にとってエンパワリングな母親イメージを取り戻し、ある いは再構築するという試みがマイノリティの女性によってなされているのは注 目すべきことである。「母親による言説」がたとえばマリアン・ハーシュの『母と 娘の物語』のような研究によって注目されだしたとき、母親に関する言説は圧 倒的に子供の立場から母親について書かれたものが多いということが明らか になってきた。数少ない「母親による言説」としてハーシュがあげた例は、トニ・ モリソンの「ビラブド」と、アリス・ウォーカーの「普段使いの品」であり、どちらも 黒人女性による作品であった。母親がr母親としての自己」という立場から語 ることが様々な理由で困難である中、語りだした母親がマイノリティであること