”Vad är jag för en mamma som inte passar in i en mammagrupp?”

Föreställningar om den goda modern i Agnes Lidbecks Finna sig och Ester Roxbergs Barnvagnsblues

Abstract

”What Kind of a Mother Am I Who Doesn’t Fit into a Mother Group?” Notions about Motherhood in Agnes Lidbeck’s Finna sig and
Ester Roxberg’s Barnvagnsblues

In this article, the aim is to investigate how the concept ”the good mother” is expressed in two Swedish novels from 2017, Agnes Lidbecks Finna sig and Ester Roxbergs Barnvagnsblues. The analysis focuses primarily on one specific aspect of the good mother
– the (biological) mother who instinctively knows how to take care of her child and who is always willing to sacrifice herself for
it – and how this notion influences the main characters’ thoughts and actions. Attention is also paid to in which extent and in what ways the novels resist this notion and if they try to change it. The study thus enters the research area of motherhood studies, more specifically of literary representations of motherhood.