Through the study of art, literature, film, and popular culture, this course will explore how the idea of “motherhood” has been historically constructed in the United States. Foregrounding study in the matrifocal nineteenth century, we will examine the origins of the “American Madonna” and explore how she has haunted the American imagination since the antebellum period. This course will also consider writers and thinkers who willfully resist the idealization of motherhood and who present an alternative maternal discourse that more fully expresses the complex experience of women who are mothers.

For more information go to the American Madonna Web page or contact Dr. Wearn at mary.wearn@maconstate.edu

A HUMN 3999 Special Topics Course
SPRING 2008
Dr. Mary Wearn
T-TH 2:00-3:15