Frantz Fanon: The Transition Of Motherhood

CHAPTER-4

THE REPRODUCTION OF MOTHERING

The issues regarding the psychological aspect of motherhood and mothering have been the concern of feminists and woman liberationists ever since the first female voice has been raised against the oppression and suppression of women, or maybe even earlier. As has been already discussed in the first two chapters of this thesis, from nearly a century and a half, various theories have been scripted to resolve the issue of gender dichotomy. But one may say that, they have been only partially successful and that too only in some specific socio-cultural strata’s, race, ethnicity and communities. To study the variety of attitudes and voices in poetry written by women concerning the psychological aspect of motherhood, the poems will have to be categorised into two thematic sections: mothers as

She strongly voiced her support for it with the slogan “Black is Beautiful” in the 1960s. Frantz Fanon’s notion of “Black Skin, White Mask,” has been largely portrayed in Una Marson’s poems, which influence the feelings and thinking of black women. . Even today Fanon’s observations are not outdated. In this poem too, just like in “An Introduction,” the mother persona perpetrates gender inequality and biases in order to save the child from any setbacks in her future life. This attitude leads to passing the same biases from mother to daughter and so on, thus depriving the young girl of experiencing the world on her own and forming an individual personal opinion, new visions and ideas therefore cannot be formed easily after such maternal training. In “Sweet Sixteen,”(see appendix for full poem; pg-xxiii) . Eunice De’Souza also portrays a near similar theme . The persona is a young woman who regrets her ignorance about her own body and its functions, because she has been instructed to be shy and coy as a part of her societal