Embodying Motherhood

Indian and Transnational Perspectives
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-14756-5
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 270 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Is it possible to imagine Indian motherhood differently through interdisciplinary and transnational investigations? Examining motherhood ideologies from the dual lenses of the humanities and social sciences, the authors investigate the maternal in both its embodied and figurative manifestations to work towards revised understandings of motherhood in contemporary India. Drawing upon religious iconography, literature, film, psychoanalysis, disability studies, sociology, and lived experience, this book approaches motherhood in India from a transnational feminist perspective to undertake a critical appraisal of the impact of hegemonic patriarchal and capitalist ideologies on women as well as to look beyond present formulations towards more emancipatory possibilities.

A key focus in the book is the experiences of mothers of children with disabilities and disabled mothers themselves. The book explores how these women navigate disability stigma and rigid ideals of "good mothering" within urban India's complex economic and social landscape. The book also examines how capitalism, consumerism, and globalization shape motherhood ideologies while illuminating women’s resistance to their constraining effects. Insights from transnational approaches including French feminism, philosophy and affect studies are brought to bear on understandings of motherhood in India with a view to envision alternate possibilities.

Advancing scholarship in transnational motherhood studies and envisioning more egalitarian and liberatory futures, this book is essential reading for scholars, students, and practitioners in Women and Gender Studies, Feminist Theory, Disability Studies, Literature, Cultural Studies, Psychoanalysis, Sociology, and Cinema Studies.

Zielgruppe

Academic, General, and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Aneja, Anu

Vaidya, Shubhangi

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Regionalwissenschaften, Regionalstudien
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik Pädagogik: Sachbuch, Ratgeber
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Invalidität, Krankheit und Abhängigkeit: Soziale Aspekte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Lists of figures. Acknowledgements. Introduction 1. Disembodied Mothers: Rewriting the Maternal Metaphor through Goddess Iconography 2. Anticipating the Mother's Dream: Maternal Subjectivity in Psychoanalysis, Literature and Cinema 3. 'Mere Paas Maa Hai': Reflections on Representations of Motherhood in Hindi Cinema 4. 'More than a Mother': Autism, Motherhood Discourse and Lived Experience 5. Capitalist Encounters: The Motherhood Pact 6. Of 'Unfit' Mothers: Disability, Stereotypes and Contestations 7. Mapping the Mother in France and India: Discursive Revolutions Epilogue: Reimagining Motherhood in Indian and Transnational Contexts. Index

Über Autor(innen)

Anu Aneja is Professor, Women and Gender Studies at George Mason University in Virginia. She has research interests in transnational feminist theory, affect and aesthetics. Her published works include Feminist Theory and the Aesthetics Within: A perspective from South Asia (2022), Women’s and Gender Studies in India: Crossings, ed. (2019), and Embodying Motherhood: Perspectives from Contemporary India (2016, co-authored with Shubhangi Vaidya). She has edited a focus volume on Gender & Distance Education: Indian and International Contexts (2019). Her work has appeared in various peer reviewed journals and edited anthologies.

Shubhangi Vaidya is a Professor at the School of Interdisciplinary and Trans-disciplinary Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. A sociologist by training, her research interests are in the areas of disability studies and gender studies. She is the author of Embodying Motherhood: Perspectives from Urban India (Sage- Yoda Press 2016) with Anu Aneja, and Autism and the Family in Urban India: Looking Back, Looking Forward (Springer, 2016). She is actively involved in awareness raising and advocacy for persons with disability and their families.