Embodying Motherhood

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.