Portret matki we współczesnej polskiej i francuskiej prozie (na przykładzie Bezmatka Miry Marcinów i Pewnej kobiety Annie Ernaux)

Abstract

The subject of the article is the portrayal of mothers in two contemporary prose works: Bezmatek by Mira Marcinów and A Woman’s Story by Annie Ernaux. The author, citing the works of Agnieszka Starobierska and Maria Mann, traces the evolution of the portrayal of the mother figure in Polish and French literatures – from biblical references to breaking away from the glorification of motherhood. To demonstrate how contemporary literature deconstructs the ‘traditional’ view of motherhood, the prose works of Marcinów and Ernaux are invoked. Both Bezmatek and A Woman’s Story were written after the deaths of the authors’ mothers, which makes the narrative oscillate between tenderness (Marcinów) and the desire to place the mother figure in a social and cultural context (Ernaux). The prose works are also brought together by the writers’ desire to search for a new form of expression. Both authors admit that they dedicated books to the most important women in their lives.