Overview

This illuminating collection moves beyond the perspectives of mothering and motherhood as an individual practice. Here, attention is given to how caretaking is extended in a myriad ways, especially in familial systems and community networks. These chapters reveal multidisciplinary perspectives that include sociology, literary studies, health, cultural studies, media studies, history, law, women's and gender studies, and personal narratives. In each conversation with the reader, the collection reflects on how othermothering strengthens core bonds within the community. The core tenet of feminist theory and practice, "" the personal is political"", becomes through the essays an invitation to reconceive the structures of parenting from, not only a critical, historical, and analytical perspective, but also from the stories that support and bring those analyses to the foreground. Here, othermothering is rescue and the collection, by sharing these diverse narratives, becomes a valuable tool - an apparatus for building community.

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9781772585742

Table of Contents

Reviews

This volume offers both theoretical advancements and methodological innovations within maternal scholarship. At the core of this work is the need to debunk normative notions of mothering and to center the value and impact of othermothering and community-based mothering practices. This central thread is well grounded in a methodological richness that comes from the use of diverse methods, including storytelling, fiction, literary critique and evocative reflections, to capture maternal thinking and practice. The centering of non-western contexts within these deliberations on alternative maternal knowledge systems and practice, adds to a much-needed global dialogue- - Dr Talia Esnard, Senior Lecturer and Sociologist, Department of Behavioural Sciences, The University of the West Indies ?This provocative volume will move the discussion on othermothering forward in important ways. As shown, the practice has existed across the globe throughout history, under both benevolent and excruciating conditions for the survival of children, communities and our species. Taken together, the chapters show that the practice continues to evolve, helps to build community bonds, and has been used by people of all ages, genders and classes. The chapters also force the reader to recognize the ways in which women continue to develop agency, expertise and confidence, suggesting that the practice of othermothering is not a relic of ancient times or indigenous societies, but one that needs to be better understood, accommodated and redesigned for today's societies. This volume challenges the idea that mothers and children are better off isolated in the home. Rather, both self and community grow as we encounter enabling others.? - Professor T?lá Olú Pearce, Sociology & Women's and Gender Studies, University of Missouri, Columbia

Author Information

Dannabang Kuwabong is a professor of Caribbean and African Diaspora Literatures at the University of Puerto Rico. His scholarly works include Rhetoric of Resistance, Labor of Love: The Eco-Poetics of Nationhood in Lasana M. Sekou's Poetry and Prose, Myth Performance in African Diaspora Drama: Ritual, Theatre, and Dance, Mothers and Daughters; Mothering, Community and Friendship; Confluences III: Essays on the New Canadian Literature; and New Scholarship on Ghanaian Literatures, Languages and Cultures. Jane Alberdeston teaches creative writing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. Her work is published in various anthologies and journals, such as Callaloo, Paterson Literary Review, Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature, The Acentos Review, Rock and Sling: A Journal of Witness, Literature Review, among others. Her post-apocalyptical novel, Colony 51, is soon to be released by Jade Ibis Press. Currently, she is conducting research for a new speculative novel. Dorsí a Smith Silva is the editor of Latina/Chicana Mothering and the co-editor of several books on mothering and motherhood. She is also the author of In Inheritance of Drowning, Full Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico, Rí o Piedras, and the poetry editor of The Hopper. Her work also appears in the Journal of Caribbean Literature, Literary Hub, and The Los Angeles Review, among others.

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