THE MATERNAL FIGURE IN MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE LITERARY CONTINUITY AND THEORETICAL APPROACHES

Аннотация

This article develops a theoretical framework for examining the maternal figure in modern English literature, with illustrative reference to Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet and The Hand That First Held Mine. It connects the historical continuity of maternal conventions with the representation of maternal subjectivity and the narrative organisation of voice, embodiment and memory. The study synthesises selected approaches from feminist literary criticism, motherhood studies, narratology and memory studies. It argues that maternal characterisation cannot be evaluated through thematic presence or ideals of sacrifice alone: its significance depends on the distribution of perception, knowledge and narrative authority. The resulting comparative procedure begins with a textual situation, identifies the formal means through which maternal experience is organised and relates those means to the relevant theoretical category. Its contribution is a coherent methodological basis for further analysis, without assuming a universal trajectory from traditional maternal ideals to emancipated contemporary subjects across periods and settings.