Mothering Performance

Mothering Performance is a combination of scholarly essays and creative responses which focus on maternal performance and its applications from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives. This collection extends the concept and action of 'performance' and connects it to the idea of 'mothering' as activity. Mothering, as a form of doing, is a site of never-ending political and personal production; it is situated in a specific place, and it is undertaken by specific bodies, marked by experience and context. The authors explore the potential of a maternal sensibility to move us towards maternal action that is explicitly political, ethical, and in relation to our others. Presented in three sections, Exchange, Practice, and Solidarity, the book includes international contributions from scholars and artists covering topics including ecology, migration, race, class, history, incarceration, mental health, domestic violence, intergenerational exchange, childcare, and peacebuilding. The collection gathers diverse maternal performance practices and methodologies which address aesthetics, dramaturgy, activism, pregnancy, everyday mothering, and menopause. The book is a great read for artists, maternal health and care professionals, and scholars. Researchers with an interest in feminist performance and motherhood, within the disciplines of performance studies, maternal studies, and women's studies, and all those who wish to gain a deeper understanding of maternal experience, will find much of interest. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Funded by University of South Wales

Lena simic is a Reader in Drama at Edge Hill University. Emily Underwood-Lee is Professor of Performance Studies at the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling at the University of South Wales.

Introduction, Section 1 - Exchange Chapter 1. Thinking Back Through our Mothers: The Editors in Conversation Chapter 2. Conversations with Mother Artists on the Dynamics of Support in India Chapter 3. HomeBody Chapter 4. Siôl Fagu: A Consideration in Four Stories Chapter 5. Mom, Me, and the Maternal at WorkChapter 6. There Are Other Worlds: Maternal Knowledge Beyond Borders Section 2 - Practice Chapter 7. Dramaturgies of Support and Interruption in the Process of Wonderwoman: The Naked Truth Notnow Collective Chapter 8. Gravida, the Weight and Wait of Pregnancy to Mothering Transformation: A Performance Exploring Traumatic Memory and the Energy of Creation Chapter 9. Motherswitch Chapter 10. Did I request thee, Maker, from my minced meat to mould me infant? Or MANIFESTO FOR A MATERNAL AESTH-ETHICS, Proposal for "PROVOCATION and PRACTICE" Chapter 11. Maternal Poetics of Care in Plastic Spaces Chapter 12. Claiming Spaces: Aprons of Power-Places of Power performances Chapter 13. Who Does she Think she is? Kate Middleton?! Leaky Escapes in Un-classy Maternal Performance Section 3 - Solidarity Chapter 14. Physical and Symbolic Loss: Composite Monologues of Women Parenting While Incarcerated Chapter 15. Performing and Transforming the Maternal: A Reflexive Inquiry using Digital Storytelling for Mutual Learning Chapter 16. Weaving Enfleshed Citizenship (M)Otherwise Chapter 17. Despatches from the Front: Midwifery in a Pandemic Chapter 18. Maternal Performance as Peacebuilding, Conclusion: On Sustaining Mothering Performance