What if the goddess Athena, who sprang fully-grown from Zeus's head and denied she had a mother, became aware of the compelling existence of her other parent? What if she discovered that her mother, Metis-first wife of Zeus and "wiser than all gods and mortal men," according to Hesiod-was swallowed by her father and continued to impart her wisdom to him from inside his belly? Recent Spanish novels by women parallel this hypothetical situation based on Greek myth by featuring female protagonists who obsessively re-examine the lives of their mothers, seeking to know and understand them. In Mother and Myth in Spanish Novels, Sandra J. Schumm examines six narratives by Spanish authors published since 2000 that focus on a daughter's search to know more about her matriarchal heritage: Carme Riera's La mitad del alma, Lucia Etxebarria's Un milagro en equilibrio, Rosa Montero's El corazon del tartaro, Cristina Cerezales's De oca a oca, Maria de la Pau Janer's Las mujeres que hay en mi, and Soledad Purtolas's Historia de un abrigo. In each of these novels, the protagonist realizes that failure to integrate the loss of her mother into her life results in the inability to define her self. Without valorization of the maternal subject, the legacy of the daughter is at risk-she is also objectified and swallowed-and the whole society suffers. The daughters' attention to their mothers in these novels is as if Athena had finally recognized that her mother, Metis, had been ingested by Zeus. The myth of Metis and Athena becomes a metaphor of the daughter's quest toward wholeness and individuation in these works; she begins to understand that her maternal legacy is a source of wisdom that has been obscured. These novels by Spanish women strengthen the mother's voice, rescue her from anonymity, and rewrite the matriarchal archetype.
Sandra J. Schumm is professor of Spanish at Baker University.
Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Acknowledgments Chapter 3 "Magnetic Metis" Chapter 4 1. Introduction: Recovering the Matriarchal Goddess of Wisdom 5 2. Reparation to the Ghostly Mother: Carme Riera's La mitad del alma Chapter 6 3. Revaluing the Mother: Lucia Etxebarria's Un milagro en equilibrio Chapter 7 4. Forgiving Medusa: Rosa Montero's El corazon del tartaro Chapter 8 5. Ghosts and Lovers: Writing as Antidote in Maria de la Pau Janer's Las mujeres que hay en mi Chapter 9 6. Activating Intuitive Communication: Cristina Cerezales's De oca a oca Chapter 10 7. Reaching beyond Mothers and Daughters: Soledad Puertolas's Historia de un abrigo Chapter 11 Conclusion: Societal Transformations Chapter 12 Works Cited Chapter 13 Index
In her second work on post-Franco Spanish women's fiction, Sandra Schumm has written a foundational work for anyone who would like to understand the importance of the mother figure in recent Spanish fiction, bringing to light an original perspective on the maternal archetype. ... This is the first book-length work on the subject of motherhood in twenty-first-century Spanish literature, and Schumm analyzes and presents theories of motherhood from diverse sources, such as Greek mythology, twentieth-century American feminist theorists, and international literary critics. ... Mother and Myth in Spanish Novels: Rewriting the Maternal Archetype shows a depth of research and breadth of knowledge as well as an accessible writing style that make it an essential resource for anyone interested in recent Spanish fiction. Teachers and scholars alike will appreciate this work. Schumm's book gives ample cultural, historical, and political background to be useful for a class, and the literary analysis and interconnections shown demonstrate a depth of knowledge helpful to any scholar. * Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures * For . . . Hispanists, Schumm's study is extremely valuable in its focus upon female-authored novels of the early twenty-first century. . . .Mother & Myth in Spanish Novels includes a full and useful bibliography and endnotes. It belongs in the libraries of all who value cogent arguments about writers' efforts to transform and commemorate the figure of the mother through a process that 'focuses on remembering the mother . . . for self-knowledge and individuation, but [based as well in] another objective . . . to create a different world." * Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature *
