Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English Summer 8-11-2011 Mothering and Surrogacy in Twentieth-Century American Literature: Promise or Betrayal Kimberly C. Weaver Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Weaver, Kimberly C., "Mothering and Surrogacy in Twentieth-Century American Literature: Promise or Betrayal." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2011. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/77 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MOTHERING AND SURROGACY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE: PROMISE OR BETRAYAL by KIMBERLY C. WEAVER Under the Direction of Pearl A. McHaney, Ph.D. ABSTRACT Twentieth-century American literature is filled with new images of motherhood. Long gone is the idealism of motherhood that flourished during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in life and in writing. Long gone are the mother help books and guides on training mothers. The twentieth-century fiction writer ushers in new examples of motherhood described in novels that critique the bad mother and turn a critical eye towards the role of women and motherhood. This study examines the trauma surrounding twentieth-century motherhood and surrogacy; in particular, how abandonment, rape, incest, and negation often results in surrogacy; and how selected authors create characters who as mothers fail to protect their children, particularly their daughters. This study explores whether the failure is a result of social-economic or physiological circumstances that make mothering and motherlove impossible or a rejection of the ideal mother seldom realized by contemporary women, or whether the novelists have rewritten the notion of the mother’s help books by their fragmented representations of motherhood. Has motherhood become a rejection of self-potential? The study will critique mother-daughter relationships in four late twentieth-century American novels in their complex presentations of motherhood and surrogacy: Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970), Kaye Gibbons’s Ellen Foster (1990), Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina (1992) and Sapphire’s Push (1997). Appropriated terminology from other disciplines illustrates the prevalence of surrogacy and protection in the subject novels. The use of surrogate will refer to those who come forward to provide the role of mothering and protection. INDEX WORDS: Motherhood, Surrogacy, Twentieth-century women’s writing, Protection, Mother-daughter bonds, Abuse of female children, Trauma, Incest MOTHERING AND SURROGACY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE: PROMISE OR BETRAYAL by KIMBERLY C. WEAVER A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2011 Copyright by Kimberly C. Weaver 2011 MOTHERING AND SURROGACY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE: PROMISE OR BETRAYAL by KIMBERLY C. WEAVER Committee Chair: Pearl A. McHaney, Ph.D. Committee: Elizabeth West, Ph.D. Nancy Chase, Ph.D. Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University August 2011 iv DEDICATION This project would not have been possible without those who have loved and mothered me through the years. I will always be indebted to the one who gave me life, my own very dear mother, Lula R. Weaver. I have been blessed to have been loved unconditionally and completely by you. I am ever so grateful for your love, support, and ability to always see me. I carry your grace and calm with me everyday as I evolve into who I am meant to be. Thank you for reminding me that it is always ok to beat to the beat of my own drum. I shall love thee. I must also thank my father, Thompkins Weaver, Jr. for always reminding me to stay focused, to keep my eyes on the prize, and that the journey is not as long as it has been. Your keen perspective and ability to remind me of who I am and why I am special has been my backbone on this journey. You remind me that I can do anything, anything that I choose to do. My parents have empowered me to question, to love, and to accept. Completing this project has made me realize even more how truly blessed that I am. I would also not have been able to complete this project without the support, humor, and dedication of my siblings, Krystin, Jonathan, and Karen. You each have contributed to this project, and I remain thankful to have such a wonderful group of people to call my siblings. As I reflect on the writers that I have chosen, I do not believe that I would have been able tackle this project with empathy and love without the love that has been given to me. I would also like to dedicate this work to the memory of two eternally special women in my life, my grandmother, Helen Brydsong, and my Aunt, Mary Frances Weaver. My dear grandmother who will not be able to read this manuscript has been with me on my daily journey. There is nothing like a grandmother’s love to remind you that you are a lovely, lovely gift. My Aunt Frances who was my role model in beating to the beat of your own drum and living life to fullest. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend sincere appreciation to the many individuals who have nurtured and helped this project come to fruition. I would like to acknowledge the support, insight, and constant dedication of my dissertation chair, Dr. Pearl A. McHaney. She remained open to my methods of discovery on this journey; I remain thankful for her ability to nurture this side of me. I appreciate the feedback and suggestions from my committee members, Dr. Elizabeth West and Dr. Nancy Chase. The committee helped ensure that I was preparing and offering the best that I could to the overall discussion of mothering and surrogacy. As I have thought over the years about motherhood, mothering, and surrogacy, I am always reminded of the many individuals who have helped to shape who I am. I am thankful for my high school English teacher, Louise Simms, who encouraged me, held me accountable, and instilled in me a great appreciation and love for women’s literature and respect for the written word. I would also like to thank my long-term mentor, Dr. Trudier Harris whose steadfast support and insight continue to help me develop as a scholar. Her tough love and honesty keeps me wanting to improve and to grow. Several sister-friends/sister-surrogates have helped me evolve on this journey. For this project, I am indebted to my dear friend, Dr. Venita Kelly who not only provided a critical eye to numerous drafts but brought her humor, passion and brilliance to discussions about my project. I would also like to thank my dear friend, Patricia Costen whose love and support helped to sustain me in the midst of chaos through reading, listening, and daily check-ins to ensure that I was well. I would like to thank my Aunt Rosetta Mayo for her reading and insight of my project with compassion. I have a host of sister-friends and family throughout the country that have checked on me and prayed for me as I have labored over this project. Thank you for lifting me up and reminding me of the importance of this project. This haven of support has allowed me to I to give voice to the voiceless and the often forgotten. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ v INTRODUCTION: Motherhood and the Birth of Surrogacy in American Literature: Marginalized Mothers…………………………………………………………………….1 CHAPTER I: Does the Mother Own the Cradle?………. ................................................ 18 CHAPTER II: The Process of De-Mothering: The Lens That Renders Invisibility and That No One Makes Visible in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye ..................................... 79 CHAPTER III: The Process of Re-Mothering: Claiming the Mother in Kaye Gibbons’s Ellen Foster ..................................................................................................................... 157 CHAPTER IV: Through the Mother’s Eye: Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina … ………………………………………………………………………………………….214 CHAPTER V: By the Mother’s Hand: Sapphire’s Push ………………………………268 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 348 WORKS CITED ............................................................................................................. 369 WORKS CONSULTED……….……………………………………………………….380 1 INTRODUCTION: Motherhood and the Birth of Surrogacy in American Literature: Marginalized Mothers This study explores the foundations of American motherhood in American literature and the shifts that occur in twentieth-century American literature. The twentieth-century American woman writer deconstructs the notion of nineteenth-century motherhood conveyed in fiction and historical mothers’ help books to illustrate the trauma experienced by the female children due to the abandonment, abuse, and trauma inflicted by their own marginalized mothers, and the entrance of the only ones who can see and mother these throw-away children, the non-normative surrogates who are also