Centuries of solace : expressions of maternal grief in popular literature
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Centuries of solace : expressions of maternal grief in popular literature
（Health, society, and policy）
Temple University Press, c1992
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-275) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Since the late 1970s, the grief of women who experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, or the death of an infant has been an increasingly visible topic in mainstream American publications. Wendy Simonds and Barbara Katz Rothman look to 19th-century women's magazines and later to confession magazines to explore the antecedents of modern writings on maternal grief and the information they convey about women from each time period. This is the first book that analyzes popular consolation literature as it changed over two centuries. The authors include a large selection of the writings that they view as social records that recognize and legitimize women's experience. Women's magazines of the last century, such as Godey's Lady's Book and Petersen's, ran numerous poems, stories, and essays in which middle-class women writers shared their grief through symbolic language and Christian evangelism. Expressions of maternal grief vanished from mainstream publications as they became increasingly secularized but reappeared in the early 20th century in True Story, the first "pulp" confessional.
Marketed to working-class women, these stories and the numerous letters from readers printed in each issue attest to a community of women trying to help each other through difficult life experiences. As women gain power in the "public" world, maternal grief is again a valid subject for mass market magazines. Modern publications, such as Glamour magazine, urge contemporary readers to join self-help groups where they will find emotional catharsis and permission to grieve. Centuries of Solace makes possible a more complete understanding of the changing social meaning of motherhood in America. Author note: Wendy Simonds is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Emory University. Barbara Katz Rothman is Professor of Sociology at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Part I: Introduction Part II: The Mother's Lament: Nineteenth-Century Consolation Literature Excerpts from Nineteenth-Century Consolation Literature 1. To a Gentleman and Lady on the Death of the Lady's Brother and Sister, and a Child of the Name Avis, Aged One Year 2. The Mother's Lament 3. The Bird and Child 4. Stanzas on the Death of Miss Rebecca Ann Marshall 5. The Angel of Death 6. An Infidel Mother 7. At Rest 8. My Child (Lamoreux) 9. My Child (North) 10. This Is a Mother's Grief 11. A Mother's Prayer for Her Sick Child 12. Starving 13. The Little Ones 14. A Silent House 15. To an Infant 16. The Baby's Drawer 17. The Wail of the Cornish Mother Part III: Confessions of Loss: Maternal Grief in True Story Excerpts from True Story 18. The Children Nobody Wanted 19. The Empty Crib 20. God Sent Me a Miracle Part IV: The Demand for Solace: Contemporary Maternal Consolation Literature Excerpts from Contemporary Consolation Literature 21. Life and Death 22. I Learned to Live Through a Mother's Greatest Loss 23. The Death of a New Baby 24. When a Baby Dies 25. Making Loving Memories 26. Comfort Us Lord Our Baby Died 27. My Precious Baby 28. To Forrest 29. Letter from K.S. 30. Infant Death 31. Miscarriage 32. The Lost Children 33. Stillbirth 34. Intensive Care Nursery 35. Giving Away the Layette Part IV: On Maternal Grief and Public Policy Notes Bibliography Index Permissions
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