Leaving The Mother: Whitman, Kristeva, and Leaves of Grass

This book traces the pivotal role of the "mother" throughout each edition of Leaves of Grass. To limit "mother" to "biological mother" or even to "female, " however, is too restrictive. Providing means of analysis, psychoanalytic theorist Julia Kristeva broadens the definition of "mother, " with her theory of subject formation. The "mother" is no longer a biological mother but instead a psychoanalytic m/other, the primal or pre-oedipal m/ other, who looms large in the child's earliest phase of development. Kristeva's theory emphasizes patriarchy's suppression of the m/other in subject formation, a process suggested within the evolution of Leaves of Grass.Dr Beth Jensen is the author of 'Leaving The Mother: Whitman, Kristeva, and Leaves of Grass', published 2002 under ISBN 9780838639146 and ISBN 0838639143.