Race and Motherhood in Brit Bennett’s The Mothers

This essay examines the intersection of motherhood and race in Brit Bennett’s The Mothers (۲۰۱۶). We discuss three types of motherhood, namely, bloodmothers, othermothers, and community mothers, in the novel. Accordingly, it can be argued that the bloodmothers in The Mothers are Elise Turner, Nadia Turner, Aubrey Evans, her mother, and Latrice Sheppard. Monique and Latrice are the othermothers, and the community's othermothers are the church mothers and Latrice Sheppard. Despite changes, raced motherhood remains a site of conflict and oppression in the twenty-first century. Theoretically, the experience of the mother as it is represented in Bennett’s novel problematizes the conventional view of raced motherhood.

Keywords:

Brit Bennett , Motherhood , Race , The Mothers