Class Notes 03/23/98
New section of analysis: Definition of Family Life Roles:
- Important because women are often defined according to their role in the
family; as a mother
- Discussion of Freud's analysis: Oedipus complex- young woman realizes
she is incomplete and envies her father (penis envy). After she accepts her
lack, she turns against her mother and towards her father. Freud states that
the girl is incomplete until she becomes a mother; particularly with a male
child.
Julia Kristeva piece- trying to make sense of it:
- semiotic bond- prelanguage stage where there is a strong bond between
mother and child.
- Problem with thinking of women as only mother; possible ways to
reevaluate this thought:
- define women without any relation to motherhood.
- revaluate the role of motherhood by giving it value.
- Kristeva tries to "value" the role of motherhood through
Lacan's theory- discusses relation of child to imaginary. Move from imaginary
(relationship with mother) into what represents reality (relationship with
father).
- Kristeva valorizes the imaginary relationship - child and mother have
special bond (diad relationship) that exists outside of language. This is best
summarized through gestures and primordial screams and sounds.
- This piece evaluates what motherhood could be within Western Christian
thought by examining early periods.
- Kristeva quotes Warner ("Alone of All her Sex") - Warner gives
an examination into historical construcation of Mary. She looks at the
qualities that Mary receives from century to century that has brought her to her
current symbolism today.
- Two most interesting descriptions of Mary:
- Immaculate Conception (1100's dogma that Mary is conceived without sin)-
shows a movement to sanctify women. She is not buried, but rises into
heaven (Assumption).
- Madonna and child figure - She becomes younger and more helpless
in appearance as Jesus becomes older.
- Warner- Mary may have been empowering for women because it was their
only access to the devine that women had. Now, in the 19th and 20th centuries,
figures are of girls or mothers (virgin mothers). However, women can be a
virgin or a mother.
- Kristeva creates the left, bold faced column to represent the ambivalence
of the right column of the article. It brings reader from the material to the
immaterial and back again.
- Kristeva uses this writing technique to question how Mary was a person
and then not a person. This demonstrates the nonhuman nature of the maternal.
- Class discussed the figure of Mary's breasts spouting milk into a male
saints mouth. This can signify that Mary has the power that can only nourish
men, or shows her as a recepticle in which she transfers the power of God to the
man. p. 101- Men are intimidated by this power and that is why they develop
controlling theories.
- Kristeva- It is hard for women to salvage something of themselves through
patriarchal thought. She tries to use Mary as a tool in salvaging what could be
interesting for feminism.
Mary is recognized as divine and human through prayers. She is somehow more
human than Jesus in that she can bring people into life through birth and death.
("Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death")
* "virginal maternal"- contains female desire of being all
powerful and fear of being a victim at the same time.
How does this relate to the Hirsch piece:
- They have similar analyses. Hirsch tries to valorize the Electra
complex.
- Hirsch- the mother is always silenced.
- Hirsch examines the roles of the Electra and Oedipal complexes in order
to see what we can learn from them.
class notes by: Connie Silbernagel