Feeding Anxieties and the Identity of the Artist: The Monstrous Mother in Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch (2021)

This paper examines the representation of monstrous motherhood in Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch (2021) through theorizations of female monstrosity, with a specific focus on the role that food and art play in the narrative. While idealized motherhood is often associated with homemaking—especially food preparations and serving—Nightbitch’s animalistic subjectivity leads to a blood thirst that slowly but surely drives her away from traditional sanitized maternal cooking and cleaning. Besides, the loss of her professional identity as an artist caused by becoming a stay-at-home mother is ultimately tackled through performance art. In combination, these attitudes lead her further away from societal expectations of motherly behavior as she welcomes the monster within her.