In this enjoyable and insightful book, Yi-Lin Yu takes the heated and ongoing feminist debate over motherhood and maternal subjectivity onto a new plane - in search of a new synthesis. With its specific focus on the three-tiered matrilineal narratives, Mother, She Wrote is distinguished by its complex and innovative deployment of psychoanalytic subject-relations theories, and a meticulous and detailed discussion of various literary texts, which calls forth a powerful reformulation of these narratives. One of the main strengths of this book is this simultaneous and tactful command of theory and literary practice. Apart from advocating the burgeoning development of women's writing of matrilineal narratives, the author also sheds new light on further research in the area of feminist motherhood and mothering.
«Yi-Lin Yu's deployment of powerful psychoanalytic ideas of subject-relation theorists is complex and persuasive, her wide choice of literary texts challenges oversimple formulations of matrilineal narratives, and her attention to narrative structure demonstrates her attention to textual detail and structure. In addition, the exposition is beautifully lucid and the scholarship well grounded.» (Alison Easton, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Lancaster University, United Kingdom)
«Yi-Lin Yu's exciting and innovative work on matrilineal family romances is an admirable study of theories and texts in the most recent phase of feminist maternal scholarship. Her feminist readings of matrilineal narratives extend into new areas, such as the diasporic narrative, bringing the complex insights afforded by literary texts into a new synthesis of theory and literary practice.» (Tess Cosslett, Author of 'Women Writing Childbirth: Modern Discourses of Motherhood')
«Yi-Lin Yu's exciting and innovative work on matrilineal family romances is an admirable study of theories and texts in the most recent phase of feminist maternal scholarship. Her feminist readings of matrilineal narratives extend into new areas, such as the diasporic narrative, bringing the complex insights afforded by literary texts into a new synthesis of theory and literary practice.» (Tess Cosslett, Author of 'Women Writing Childbirth: Modern Discourses of Motherhood')