On the Margins of Motherhood: Choosing to Be Child-Free in Lucie Joubert’s L’Envers du landau (2010)

Abstract

Voluntarily choosing not to have children is increasingly becoming a preferred life option in contemporary society. Yet there remains an inherent suspicion and pitying of women who do not follow what is still perceived, despite several waves of feminism, as their biological destiny. Such choices are considered ‘unspeakable’ by the dominant pro-natalist discourse that currently presides in western advanced-capitalist society. This article attempts to challenge and reverse prescribed beliefs about motherhood and create a textual space for those who have been denigrated for choosing not to become mothers.

Keywords:

• French Canadian literature
• Lucie Joubert
• motherhood
• pro-natalism
• voluntary childlessness