“I Am a Bad Mother”: Constructions of Motherhood in Women’s Nineteenth-Century and Contemporary Fiction

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1 Other titles include Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson (2021), and two other novels also titled The Perfect Mother written by Caroline Mitchell (2020) and Nina Darnton (2014).2 Each of these characteristics has appeared in Theriot, Welter, and Wearn’s studies on motherhood and thus act as “agreed upon” characteristics that define the expectations of true womanhood/imperial motherhood.3 Beecher herself called her Treatise of Domestic Economy a “text-book” for women (6). Other scholars have called Beecher the “major theoretician” of “the triumphs and tensions of nineteenth-century womanhood” (Sklar xiv). Sigourney’s Letters to Mothers “went through almost thirty editions in the U.S. and Britain during her lifetime” (Hogeland 303).4 Nancy Theriot is the only scholar I have been able to find who uses the term “imperial motherhood;” thus her work will be the only one cited in this explanation of the term.5 This list is not exhaustive for either this paper or the tradition of sentimental/advice/child-rearing literature of the nineteenth century.6 In Sigourney’s Letters to Mothers “Letter V: Maternal Love” she claims “The love of children, in man is a virtue: in women, an element of nature” (48).7 Mrs. James is only referred to in the text as her married surname. Never her first name.8 I say “near 2022” setting as the novel does not give an indication of time. It appears to be set in the contemporary moment, but its dystopian version of Child Protective Services and the mothering program itself suggest its placement in a more dire future time.9 Elizabeth Stuart Phelps describes Mrs. James’s interest as “a course of reading and study” that mostly involved learning or reading other languages such as “German” and “French” (561).10 Frida explains her job as “produc[ing] a faculty research digest, rewriting academic papers as short articles with takeaways for the business community” (Chan 4).