„Maternal gothic” — rozważania genologiczne

Abstract

The article attempts a genre-based and discursive examination of the phenomenon of the maternal gothic, which has so far been absent from Polish literary studies but has been developed within the Anglo-American tradition at the intersection of Gothic aesthetics and motherhood studies. The author treats it as a transgeneric mode of representation which — drawing on the tradition of female gothic — serves to articulate ambivalent, often tabooed maternal experiences. Based on an analysis of selected cultural texts from different periods — Shirley Jackson’s short stories (1948), Ashley Audrain’s novel The Push (2021), and Jennifer Kent’s film The Babadook (2014) — the author identifies recurrent formal and narrative strategies characteristic of the maternal gothic, leading to the deconstruction of the „good mother/bad mother” dichotomy and revealing forms of violence rooted in patriarchally established sociocultural relations. Maternal gothic thus emerges as an important tool for reflecting on the contemporary experience of motherhood, exposing its transgressive, ambivalent, and deeply unsettling dimensions. The methodology employed in the study draws on cultural literary theory, feminist criticism, and cultural studies of motherhood.