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| Titre : | The Aesthetics of “the good-enough mother” in Lucy Caldwell’s Short Fiction (2021) |
| Auteurs : | Hedwig SCHWALL, Auteur |
| Type de document : | Article |
| Dans : | Etudes irlandaises (Vol 46 n 2 Automne 2021) |
| Article en page(s) : | p. 141-155 |
| Langues: | Anglais |
| Mots-clés : | |
| Résumé : | It has been argued that “Troubles texts” tend to focus on identity formation, on violence and mimetic behaviour, on essentialist positions and on how they cause stasis and lack of emotion, while many short fiction writers have tried to deconstruct these phenomena. This article highlights how Lucy Caldwell’s Multitudes (2016) and Intimacies (2021) seem to be developing her own literary alternative in an aesthetics of “the good-enough mother”. Content-wise her short stories focus on mother-child relationships in which identity is less important than interaction; respect for the Other prevails, and most mothers encourage their children to develop their creative selves, often via a transitional object. On the formal level too, Caldwell’s economic prose reflects Winnicott’s holding and detoxifying, yet challenging “good-enough mother”, inviting the readers to participate in an anti-dualistic aesthetic, where abstract and concrete aspects are tightly interwoven and a fresh sense of life is fuelled by the powers of the imagination. |
| Pays de publication : | France |
| Fonds : | Médiathèque |
