| Title |
Non-motherhood and the narrative of the self in Nuria Labari’s The Best Mother of the World / |
| Authors |
Kuzminskaitė, Dovilė |
| DOI |
10.1007/978-3-031-66697-1_3 |
| ISBN |
9783031666964 |
| eISBN |
9783031666971 |
| Full Text |
|
| Is Part of |
Negotiating non-motherhood. Representations, perceptions, and experiences / editors Jenny Björklund, Dovilė Kuzminskaitė, Julie Rodgers.. Cham : Palgrave MacMillan, 2025. p. 41-59.. ISBN 9783031666964. eISBN 9783031666971 |
| Keywords [eng] |
non-motherhood ; Labari ; Spain |
| Abstract [eng] |
In her novel The Best Mother in the World (La mejor madre del mundo, 2019) contemporary Spanish writer and journalist Nuria Labari presents both an intimate and a panoramic view of infertility, assisted reproduction, motherhood, and abortion. Her protagonist, a young middle-class woman living in Barcelona, narrates her story of becoming a mother in the first person, starting from an initial lack of desire to become a mother to a newly discovered longing to become one and, finally, the decision to abort her third, unexpected pregnancy. The Best Mother in the World presents a socio-political and critical reading of non-motherhood: it discusses the economic aspects of becoming a mother, the societal pressure, and the hypocrisy of medical discourse. Labari conceptualizes motherhood as a void that every woman must negotiate at some point in her life and which impacts her identity. The author challenges established discourses surrounding motherhood and non-motherhood by emphasizing the closeness of these two experiences. Therefore, motherhood and non-motherhood are portrayed as complex, dynamic, and ever-evolving phenomena rather than pre-conceptualized experiences. |
| Published |
Cham : Palgrave MacMillan, 2025 |
| Type |
Book part |
| Language |
English |
| Publication date |
2025 |
| CC license |
|
