Efterfødselsreaktion - et bachelorprojekt om strukturelle årsagsforklaringer

Abstract

Physical and emotional exhaustion, guilt, isolation and loss of identity and self-confidence are common experiences for new mothers. Despite this, it’s not a part of the story we tell each other about motherhood. This projects aim is to identify neoliberal and phylogenetic structural conditions, that can be seen as causal explanations for the experience of maternal distress or a negative reaction to the new motherhood. Neoliberal motherhood seems affected by intensive mothering norms which can be conflicting with the fact that women are more engaged in paid employment than ever before. Neoliberal norms like individuality and competition, may lead to feelings of loneliness and dissatisfaction. The phylogenetic factors of motherhood has to do with physical consequences of giving birth and having a small child, and the discrepancies between hard work and a lack of status and the fact that women today are more or less primary caretakers when it used to be a job that “took a village”. The theories of Louis Althusser and Ole Dreier are used to understand neoliberal and phylogenetic points in the novel Mit Arbejde by Olga Ravn. Here, both neoliberal and phylogenetic conditions are obvious and can be understood as a causal explanation for the anxiety and distress the main character is experiencing.

Bedømmelse: 12