CFP: Mothering in a Post-Apocalyptic World (9/15/07; NEMLA, 3/1/07-3/4/07)
What's a Woman to Do: Mothering in a Post-Apocalyptic World : By its cultural definition, motherhood is a role that requires one to act as a caretaker, to provide a safe and sustaining environment, to enable the next generation's well-being. But to live in a post-apocalyptic world suggests that the environment has become hostile to life, destroying the possibility of a future and hope of regeneration.
This panel explores how does post-1950s fiction present the mother figure within the conditions of a post-apocalyptic world? Potential approaches may include: Ecocritical Readings, Feminist Theory, Psychoanalytical Theory, and Cultural Studies.