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Tag Archives: maternity
Non-Motherhood, (In)Fertility, and Choice in Two Recent Spanish Narratives
This post shares my recent article, published in the Hispanic Studies Review, which analyzes two Spanish “hybrid narratives”: Míriam Aguilar’s “¿Y ahora qué?” (2024) and Paola Andrea Ghirardi’s “Diario de una bordadora” (2023), exploring non-motherhood, fertility struggles, and maternal desire. The excerpts from this article show how these writers challenge societal views on motherhood, offer alternative narratives that validate the experiences of women confronting infertility, and redefine their identity beyond motherhood. Continue reading
Posted in Feminism, Literature, Spain, Women
Tagged Spain, maternity, motherhood, spanish literature, books, contemporary spanish literature, nonmotherhood, infertility, publication, maternidad, no maternidad
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The Thirteen Roses and Spanish Cinema’s Celebration of Motherhood
This summer I was once again able to spend a few weeks in Spain, for both work and fun. I presented a paper on the 2007 Spanish film, Las 13 Rosas (The 13 Roses) at a conference on Spanish and Portuguese … Continue reading
Posted in Feminism, Spain, Spanish Civil War, Women
Tagged film, history, las 13 rosas, maternity, motherhood, politics, spanish civil war, spanish literature, women
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Maternity and Madrid: Gendered Spaces in La rampa (1917)
I have officially decided that September is the fastest-moving, shortest month of the (academic) year. It flies by quicker than winter break. One day you are rather calmly introducing the course syllabus and getting to know new students… the next … Continue reading
Posted in History, Literature, Modernity, Science and Medicine, Spain, Women
Tagged 1920s, Carmen de Burgos, gender, literature, madrid, maternity, motherhood, Spain, urban studies
10 Comments
“Fun” with Academic Publishing: Wordle, Coffee, and Pedagogy
As any professor, graduate student, or postdoc knows, publishing an article in an academic journal is not a particularly enjoyable process… and it can take months, if not years, to see your article in print once accepted and revised. Knowing … Continue reading
Breastfeeding in the Prado: Religious, Mythological, and Pagan Roots
Don’t worry! This isn’t a too-much-information personal anecdote… just some observations I made regarding the very frequent and detailed depictions of breastfeeding in the artwork gracing the Prado’s walls. Having initially visited Madrid’s Museo del Prado in 2001 for my … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Spain, Women
Tagged art, breastfeeding, catholicism, madrid, maternity, motherhood, museo del prado, Rubens, Spain, spanish art, velazquez, virgin mary
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Murderous Mothers and the Discourse of Infanticide
This post is admittedly a slightly odd compilation of images and ideas – It seems that over the past several months I’ve been researching or teaching about murderous mothers in literature, film, history, and popular culture: from the assassination of … Continue reading
Posted in Art, History, Women
Tagged art, Aurora Rodriguez, catholicism, children, culture, domesticity, Family Planning, Feminism, gender ideology, goya, infanticide, italy, La llorona, maternity, medical history, motherhood, Rubens, spanish art, women
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The Red Virgin: Motherhood and Power Dynamics
“I shall do as you request, and tell you everything about myself […] You may like me, but I am not alive.” –Hildegarte, played by Ivana Baquero in The Red Virgin “I will do as you ask and tell you … Continue reading
Posted in Feminism, First-wave spanish feminism, History, Pedagogy, Science and Medicine, Spain, Women
Tagged 1920s, Aurora Rodriguez, Birth Control, books, Eugenics, Family Planning, film, first-wave spanish feminism, Gregorio Marañon, Havelock Ellis, Hildegart Rodríguez, madrid, maternity, medical history, motherhood, pedagogy, Red Virgin, sexuality, Spain, teaching spanish, women
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Picasso on Maternity and Motherhood
A few weeks ago, students in my Hispanic Women’s Literature course turned in their first paper on Carmen de Burgos’ La rampa. Part of their assignment was to include an image with their essay. One student selected the following painting, … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Spain, Women
Tagged 1920s, art, art history, books, femininity, maternity, Mother and Child, mother-child relationship, motherhood, Pablo Picasso, picasso, Spain, spanish art, women
10 Comments
Pretty Women Use Birth Control – my guest post at Nursing Clio
I’m very excited to have written a guest post for one of my favorite blogs, Nursing Clio. For this piece, I re-visited my very first blog post in which I critiqued, with a sort of “literary analysis” approach, the function … Continue reading
Posted in History, Science and Medicine, Spain, Women
Tagged 1920s, Birth Control, Eugenics, Family Planning, first-wave spanish feminism, gender, Marañón, maternity, medical history, Nursing Clio, pseudoscience, Spain, spanish, women
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Exploring Female Identities in Carmen de Burgos’ “La rampa”
One of the first novels to spark my interest in early twentieth-century Spanish women’s literature was Carmen de Burgos’ La rampa (1917). As an urban novel, the narrative explores the effects of modernity not only on the residents of and … Continue reading
Posted in Feminism, First-wave spanish feminism, History, Literature, Modernity, Pedagogy, Spain, Women
Tagged 1920s, art, books, Carmen de Burgos, city, culture, femininity, Feminism, first-wave spanish feminism, gender, La rampa, literature, madrid, maternity, modernity, motherhood, pedagogy, Spain, spanish, spanish literature, teaching, teaching spanish, urban studies, women
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Rebecca M. Bender, PhD 