Maternal Ambivalence in Avni Doshi’s Burnt Sugar and Zehra Naqvi’s The Reluctant Mother

ABSTRACT

This article examines the concept of maternal ambivalence in the Indian cultural milieu through a critical analysis of Avni Doshi’s Burnt Sugar and Zehra Naqvi’s The Reluctant Mother. These novels illustrate how societal glorification of maternal archetypes imposes significant emotional burdens on mothers who defy established norms, leading to inner conflicts laden with guilt, uncertainty, and the struggle to balance personal aspirations with societal expectations. We demonstrate how the novels subvert the entrenched heteropatriarchal order and advocate for a departure from rigid standards of what Andrea O’Reilly calls ‘patriarchal motherhood’. The article focuses on the mother–child relationship, which is characterised by ‘ambiguous intersubjectivity’ and ethical dilemmas linked to maternal discontent. We argue that a phenomenological exploration of maternal ambivalence, in conjunction with cultural norms, offers valuable insights into the complexities of maternal subjectivity and mirrors the conflicts within the maternal psyche. This approach grounds conceptions of gender and motherhood in lived experiences rather than normative ideals, providing a unique lens to examine social realities beyond individual literary works. We show how maternal ambivalence lies at the heart of the motherhood experience and how these narratives vindicate the individuality and autonomy of mothers.

KEYWORDS:

• Motherhood
• maternal ambiguity
• maternal archetypes
• guilt
• autonomy
• India

Acknowledgements

We extend our profound gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and the regional editor of Asian Studies Review for their insightful comments and meticulous suggestions. We also extend our thanks to Professor David Hundt for his invaluable guidance throughout this process.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. The ‘motherhood mandate’ is defined as the ‘social and cultural forces that propel women into motherhood – either by choice or by chance’ (Russo, 1976, 143). This mandate not only pervades the individual’s role but also influences societal expectations and behaviours. Nancy Russo argues that the pervasive societal pressure for women to bear and rear children portrays motherhood as not merely a choice, but an expectation deeply ingrained in social customs.

^2. Daly and Reddy (1991, 2) use the term ‘daughter-centricity’ to describe the perspective wherein ‘we learn less about what it is like to mother than about what it is like to be mothered, even when the author has had both experiences’. This, according to Andrea O’Reilly (2021, 44), creates a gap that neglects the subjective experience of mothers themselves. As O’Reilly suggests, the underlying goal of motherhood studies is to elevate mothers’ voices and delve deeper into the process of becoming and being a mother from their unique perspective.

^3. Ahmed (2010, 50) conceptualises the figure of the ‘happy housewife’ as a culturally constructed and ideological ‘fantasy figure’ that obfuscates the reality of unpaid domestic labour under the guise of happiness. Doshi (2021a) says that the book’s title derives from a ‘domestic monster’ that deals with the ‘mundane, benign terror’ with which women live.

^4. Matrescence is a term coined by medical anthropologist Dana Raphael (1975) to refer to the developmental process of becoming a mother. She argues that childbirth is merely the opening act, not the culmination, of becoming a mother. There is no biological switch flipped at delivery, and the transition to motherhood unfolds at a variable pace across cultures. This challenges the idea of a universal maternal instinct and the simplistic notion that biology dictates motherhood.

^5. According to Patricia Hill Collins (2016, 131), ‘motherwork’ is the unacknowledged labour that mothers do, including care work; these devoted efforts are often eclipsed by the veils of invisibility.