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Xin Liu, Maternal Fictions: Writing the Mother in Indian Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Women's Writing, Volume 18, Issue 2, December 2024, Pages 156–158, https://doi.org/10.1093/cww/vpae028
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Extract
In light of the current re-appropriation of the idea of Bharat Mata (Mother India) and the resurgence of patriarchal notions of motherhood propagated by right-wing Hindu forces, a critical examination of Indian maternal narratives is more necessary than ever. Connecting motherhood studies and literary studies, Indrani Karmakar’s pioneering study, Maternal Fictions, emerges as a timely and critical intervention into the domain of motherhood as presented in selected Indian women’s fictions. Recognizing the postcolonial concern of nationalist identities imagined through maternal images, Karmakar shifts the focus from the metaphorical to the material dimension of motherhood, an under-researched field, to address key questions such as “what it means to be a mother” and “what possibilities these polyphonic maternal narratives offer” (5). Through a nuanced analysis of the complex textual maternal identities and practices, Karmakar convincingly argues that these fictions problematize dominant motherhood ideologies and resist the resurgent homogenizing tendencies in India, therefore inviting readers to reflect on “the literary, socio-political and philosophical questions relating maternity in its increasingly complex forms and shapes” (18–19).
