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Author
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Comment
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(2/7/05 2:03 pm)
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Mothers and daughters
Hi. I'm hoping to get some great suggestions from the good people at surlalune! I'm putting together a course on mother-daughter relationships in twentieth-century literature, and I'd like to begin it by reading and discussing certain influential myths/tales. I'm planning to use the Demeter-Persephone story as well as Snow White. I'd like to find a third story, which has to be about mothers and daughters and to have resonance with contemporary literature. I've thought about Clytemnestra-Iphigenia-Electra, but to be honest, I think that while that myth has been fairly significant for a number of feminist theorists, I don't see it influencing a lot of literature. Also, it would be nice to be able to include a tale or myth from a non-Western tradition, or at least a non-white tradition. I'm going to get a hold of Jane Yolen's Mirror, Mirror and re-read it this week, but I was wondering if the collective wisdom had any thoughts. Thanks for your help.
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Jess
Unregistered User
(2/7/05 2:30 pm)
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Mother daughter tales
Jane has a book on tales for mothers and daughters. I wonder if you could start by looking at that.
Also, I was just curious if you are going to share Joy Luck Club in your class.
Jess
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KathieRose
Unregistered User
(2/7/05 9:43 pm)
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Mothers and Daughters
My books might be of interest to you. In Her Image, published by Shambhala in 1989, is a Jungian perspective on mothers and daughters; one of the theses of that book is that, lacking access to an archetypal Mother in our culture, we project archetypal expectations, both positive and negative, and load them onto this one human being. But perhaps more relevant to what you're looking for is my second book, Life's Daughter/Death's Bride which is an in-depth exploration of the Demeter-Persephone myth, also from a Jungian perspective [published by Shambhala in 1997]. Chapter Two of Life's Daughter is a scholarly essay on the myth and its variants that might work for your class. There's also a number of photos of various women's art focussed on this myth. Both books are out of print now, unfortunately, but the used bookstores like Powells online or www.abebooks.com often have copies.
You might also look at Christine Downing's The Long Journey Home [also published by Shambhala and also out of print]; her point of view on Demeter and Persephone differs from mine but this book is a collection of essays and poems on this myth, worth reading. And my very favorite essay forever on Persephone is the one on Kore by Carl Kerenyi in Essays on a Science of Mythology, written by him and Carl Jung. Kerenyi's book Eleusis: Archetype of Mother and Daughter has some interesting material in it as well. And there's Helen Foley's book on The Homeric Hymn to Demeter.
I can't seem to get registered on Sur Lalune but I'll email you with some other ideas. You probably already know of Susan Koppelman's Between Mothers and Daughters which is a collection of short stories by various women authors about this relationship; it just came out in a new edition published by the Feminist Press (I just sent her a synopsis of the Persephone myth for it so I'm aware of its having just been reissued).
Kathie Carlson
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(2/8/05 3:15 am)
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Re: Mothers and Daughters
Thank you so much! Of all the books you mentioned, the only one I knew about was Helene Foley's (isn't it marvellous?). I will check out the others this week!
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janeyolen
Registered User
(2/8/05 3:47 am)
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Re: Mothers and Daughters
Mine is called MIRROR MIRROR: 40 Folktales for Mothers and Daughters to Share. (Viking) and the stories are grouped within sections (Good Daughters, Bad Daughters, etc.) with commentary by my daughter and me.
Jane
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(2/8/05 3:53 am)
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Re: Mothers and Daughters
I know! I read it a couple years ago and was very impressed--I'm re-reading it this week, if I can find a copy. It was great.
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