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Den 5 maj 1913 lämnade kvarnarbetaren Axel Julius Johansson (1888–1973) sitt hem i västgötska Trollhättan för att resa till USA. Han var tjugofyra år och gav sig iväg för att uppleva äventyr och tjäna pengar. Kvar i Sverige fanns hans käresta Elin Sofia Samuelsson (1892–1972) som han träffat ett halvår tidigare. Han stannade i Amerika i tre år och brevväxlade under hela tiden med Elin. De fortsatte skriva till varandra fram till hösten 1920 medan Elin var tjänsteflicka i Göteborg och Axel arbetade på en kvarn utanför Uddevalla. I oktober 1920 gifte de sig. I brev och dagboksanteckningar möter vi en utvandrare som också blev en återvändare. Axel skriver om kroppsarbetet, om sitt nya land, om arbetskamraterna och om hemlängtan – ämnen som känns igen i de miljontals brev som skickades över Atlanten under den stora emigrationen till Nordamerika. Anna Williams sätter in Axel Johanssons resa i ett emigrationshistoriskt sammanhang och publicerar ett urval ur dagboksanteckningarna och breven mellan Axel och Elin.

This chapter introduces the volume by outlining some crucial scholarly histories: the feminist study of motherhood and mothering, and the literary study of mothers in fiction and life writing, across many differences. Since mothers, motherhood, and mothering not only are defined by physical and material experiences but also take shape in narratives—in stories and recorded accounts—these also need to be continuously studied and theorized if we are to understand the culturally specific meanings of motherhood. The chapter then introduces each of the separate studies in the volume. These variously demonstrate that literary representations of mothers and mothering foreground the ways that parenthood and parenting for women are imbricated with dimensions like class, race, age, and nationality, as well as how motherhood is connected to living a heterosexual, lesbian, queer, or trans everyday life. In original analyses of a range of representations, from absent/missing mothers to highly present ones, the studies that comprise this book engage in a dialogue with the previous research, raising questions about how motherhood and mothering are marked by absence and/or presence and by profound ambivalences, about how maternal perspectives and voices gain space or mix with filial voices in the narratives, and about how mothers are constructed in relation to ideals and norms of motherhood.

This chapter examines contemporary autobiographical narratives which explore the notion of motherhood as the central issue in women’s lives. These narratives have been important in offering alternative discourses and thereby broadening the concept of motherhood. This chapter discusses them in the light of motherhood studies and theories about matrilineal narratives in contemporary literature. Works by two highly acclaimed Canadian writers are at the center of our study: Rachel Cusk’s A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother (first published in 2001; 2008) and Sheila Heti’s Motherhood (2018). Both volumes convey an ambivalence toward motherhood and lean on emotions as well as intellectual argument. Theoretically, the point of departure is Toril Moi’s discussion about contemporary life writing as an “exercise of attention,” and furthermore the feminist examination of the definition of motherhood and mothering in a social context, from Adrienne Rich (1976) to Tina Miller (2005). The texts discussed in this chapter contest different “cultural scripts” (Miller)—discourses that affect societal and subjective views on motherhood and gender.

Mammor har fört en märkligt undanskymd tillvaro i litteraturhistorien. Men i samtidslitteraturen dyker de plötsligt upp överallt. Allt oftare tar de själva till orda och allt oftare vittnar de om svårigheten i att finna sin roll. Mammalitteraturen av idag lyfter också fram nya roller – adoptivmamman och surrogatmamman, kvinnan som ångrat sina barn eller hon som valt bort moderskapet helt. Litteraturhistorikern Anna Williams ser hur dagens litterära mödrar både utmanar traditionen och bygger vidare på linjer som löper längre tillbaka i historien. Tillsammans bildar de en genre som varit minst sagt styvmoderligt behandlad i litteraturforskningen.

This open access volume offers original essays on how motherhood and mothering are represented in contemporary fiction and life writing across several national contexts. Providing a broad range of perspectives in terms of geopolitical places, thematic concerns, and theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches, it demonstrates the significance of literary narratives for understanding and critiquing motherhood and mothering as social phenomena and subjective experiences. The chapters contextualize motherhood and mothering in terms of their particular national and cultural location and analyze narratives about mothers who are firmly placed in one national context, as well as those who are in “in-between” positions due to migrant experiences. The contributions foreground and link together the themes central to the volume: embodied experience and maternal embodiment; notions of what is “normal” or natural (or not) about motherhood; maternal health and illness; mother-daughter relations; maternality and memory; and the (im)possibilities of giving voice to the mother. They raise questions about how motherhood and mothering are marked by absence and/or presence, as well as by profound ambivalences.

I två svenska romaner från mellankrigstiden som berättar om livet för den ensamstående mamman, Ingeborg Björklunds En kvinna på väg (1926) och Alice Lyttkens Flykten från vardagen (1933), skildras skammen, fördömandet och den sociala utsattheten för kvinnan som ofrivilligt eller frivilligt blir mamma utanför äktenskapet. Men böckernas ideologiska perspektiv skiljer sig åt och det gör även synen på individens och samhällets roll i fråga om hur villkoren för den ensamma mamman kan förändras.