Mother-Daughter Relationships in Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper examines mother-daughter relationships from a narrative perspective as well as a psychoanalytic approach. The paper determines the extent to which psychoanalytic perspectives and theories may be applied to the mother-daughter bond as it is presented in many well-known literary works. To that extent, the short stories of Katherine Mansfield are compared to literary works by Jamaica Kincaid in order to offer a wide understanding of narrative technique employed in shorter and longer works.

From the Paper:

"In many cases the writer invests something of themselves in the work to convince the reader of the authenticity of the characters. This is certainly the case in autobiographical works including fictional works derived from true to life situations. Jamaica Kincaid is an exemplary model of an author who utilizes autobiographical techniques among others to define her characters. Katherine Mansfield is well known for minimizing drama in her works while simultaneously raising psychological insight and perspective. Her techniques have been described in many ways. In her more recent works O'Sullivan points out that she employs a variety of techniques to build her plots up toward an epiphany in a plunging manner, as evidenced in Bliss and Daughters. Mansfield includes "indirections, shifts of perspective, overlapping and modulations of time and imprecision's of mood and randomness" (O'Sullivan, 1975) to engage the reader."

More papers on Mother-Daughter Relationships in Literature:

• Analytical Essay # 57827 : "The Mother-Daughter Tale in Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 35215 : "Mother-Daughter Relationships"
• Book Review # 1403 : "Mother/Daughter Relationships in "The Joy Luck Club"

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