Maternal Ambivalence in Contemporary Literature: Offill, Yoder, and Cusk

Author(s)	Mrs. Anushya G R
Country	India
Abstract	This article examines how Jenny Offill, Rachel Yoder, and Rachel Cusk represent maternal ambivalence in their contemporary works “Dept. of Speculation” (2014), “Nightbitch” (2021), and “A Life's Work” (2001). Maternal ambivalence, as theorised by Adrienne Rich and Rozsika Parker, refers to the coexistence of love and resentment, devotion and exhaustion, fulfilment and loss of self within motherhood. Offill’s fragmented prose mirrors the fractured consciousness of maternal life, Yoder’s surreal metamorphosis dramatizes the bodily and psychological upheaval of postpartum experience, and Cusk’s stark memoir confronts the realities of exhaustion and resentment directly. By situating these texts within the theoretical framework of maternal ambivalence, this article argues that they resist cultural idealisations of motherhood and instead embrace its contradictions. Together, they demonstrate that ambivalence is not a failure but the truth of maternal experience
Keywords	Maternal ambivalence, motherhood,Jenny Offill, Rachel Yoder Rachel Cusk, feminist literature, identity, surrealism,memoir, fragmentation
Field	Sociology > Linguistic / Literature
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 2, March-April 2026
Published On	2026-04-12

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