Kackute, Egle (2016) Mother Tongue as the Language of Mothering and Homing Practice in Betty Quan’s Mother Tongue and Hiromi Goto’s Chorus of Mushrooms.Survival Strategies and Identity Construction of Migrant and Refugee Mothers. In: The Migrant Maternal: ‘Birthing’ New Lives Abroad. Demeter Press, pp. 56-74. ISBN 978-1-77258-080-8
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Abstract
“I am my language. I speak Chinese. Your voices. Your words. You drown 
me out” (Quan 14) 
–
says the Mother to her children in Betty Quan’s play 
Mother 
Tongue
underlining
the   cru
cial   aspect   of   mothering   in   exile,   the   language   of 
mothering
,
as  a  site  in  which  the  cultural/ethnic  identity,  the  sense  of  self  and 
maternal subjectivity 
intersect and 
are negotiated. This chapter explores the language 
of  mothering  through  two  fictional  a
ccounts  of  immigrant  mothering  both  of  which 
underscore 
the tension between mothering practices and linguistic difference. It aims 
to address this tension by suggesting that in the context of migration, the language of 
mothering   can   be   conceptualised   as   a 
mothering   and   homing   practice,   which 
functions  as  a  structuring,  creative  force  that  produces  and  shapes  both  migrant 
mothers’ and their children’s subjectivities. The chapter will consider two fictional 
texts:  the  play 
Mother  Tongue 
(1996)  by  Chinese
-
Cana
dian  playwright  Betty  Quan 
and  the  novel 
Chorus  of  Mushrooms 
(1994)  by  Japanese
-
Canadian  author  Hiromi 
Goto
,
both  featuring  immigrant  and  refugee  mothers  who  mother  primarily  in  their 
own mother tongue rather than English, the language of the host country,
Canada.
  
  | Item Type: | Book Section | 
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Mother Tongue; Language of Mothering; Homing Practice; Betty Quan; Hiromi Goto; Chorus of Mushrooms; Survival Strategies; Identity Construction; Migrants; Refugee Mothers; | 
| Academic Unit: | Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures > French | 
| Item ID: | 10305 | 
| Depositing User: | Egle Kackute | 
| Date Deposited: | 11 Dec 2018 10:55 | 
| Publisher: | Demeter Press | 
| Refereed: | Yes | 
| Related URLs: | |
| Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here | 
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