Making/Breaking Stereotypes: The Connection Between Maternal Ambivalence and Authenticity in Morgan Jerkins’ Caul Baby

Abstract

This research paper explores the portrayal of maternal ambivalence in the novel Caul Baby by Morgan Jerkins, investigating the impact of race and economic status on this ambivalence through the fictional representation of motherhood. The selected novel illustrates how dominant discourses on maternity in America continue to distinguish between “good” and “bad” mothers, discriminating particularly against members of ethnic and class-based minorities. One of the primary features of “bad” mothers is the phenomenon of ambivalence, in which women simultaneously feel positive and negative emotions towards their child. Through the aforementioned novel, this paper explores the extent to which ambivalence—whether acknowledged or denied—influences the maternal practices of fictional mothers. It also calls attention to the challenge mothers of marginalised communities face: that of raising their children in accordance with their own principles when opposed by white-majority American society and its insistence on idealised motherhood.