Events

March 27, 2015 at 5:30 pm

WGSS Reading Group: Kristeva’s ‘Herethics’ on March 27

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies hosts its second Reading Group event of the year on Friday, March 27, at 31 S. Court St., Room 105. The Reading Group begins at noon.

Led by Allushuski Fellow Kelly Masterson, a Ph.D. student in Ohio University’s English Department, the Reading Group will focus on Kristeva’s “Herethics” in Evelyn Scott’s books: Escapade and The Narrow House.

“‘The Last […] Thing One Needed to Know’: Kristeva’s ‘Herethics’ in Evelyn Scott’s Escapade and The Narrow House by Andrea Powell Jenkins in the Journal of Modern Literature examines representations of motherhood in two texts by early 20th-century American author Evelyn Scott, addressing the impacts of the “paternal order’s claim” on women’s maternal bodies. Scott’s exploration of motherhood as a liberating and empowering experience anticipates what Julia Kristeva has termed a “herethics” discourse, a discourse that is “based on individual experience and that focuses on the sensual nature of pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering.” However, is this conceptualization of motherhood possible when it is circumscribed by patriarchal attitudes toward women’s traditional roles and their bodies? What are the impacts of the “paternal order’s claim” on women’s maternal bodies? To what extent can the issues raised in Scott’s texts, including the physicality of motherhood, maternal ambivalence, and “ownership” of the pregnant body, be applied today? These (and more) are some of the questions we will explore in the next meeting of the reading group.

The Allushuski Fellowship is dedicated to supporting the mentorship link between graduate and undergraduate students at Ohio University. WGSS reading groups are one means by which our Allushuski Fellows engage with the academic community and enrich scholarship on campus.

If you are interested in attending and would like to gain access to the required reading, please send a request to Chris Caldwell at caldwec1@ohio.edu.

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