Bycie w ciąży z matką. O macierzyństwie i spektrum autyzmu w prozie Doroty Kotas

Being Pregnant with Your Mother. About Motherhood and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Dorota Kotas’s Novels This article examines the idea of double motherhood in Dorota Kotas’s novel Czerwony młoteczek. Author analyzes the “being pregnant with your mother” metaphor in the context of carnality and identity, pointing out two different ways of understanding it. First one suggests child participation in the whole experience (mother and child coexistence in being pregnant), second one could be defined as a form of internalizing mother’s voice and worldview by an adult child. By citing few feminist theories regarding motherhood and daughterhood (presented by Luce Irigaray, Adrienne Rich, Phyllis Chesler and Ewa Korolczuk), author analyzes the relationship between main character and her mother (including examples from two previous books – Cukry and Pustostany). The shape of their connection is being portrayed only from one point of view (daughter’s) turning the narrative into a form of complaint.Author focuses on the most important allegations and disappointments from Dorota’s childhood and interpretates them in the context of non-normativity of main character – Autism Spectrum Disorder and sexual orientation. They both do not meet mother’s criteria of normality. The article concludes that it is necessary to find new ways of describing mother-daughter relationships. Prevailing discourse, based on androcentrism and Freud’s theories, induces daughters to resent their mothers. However, Luce Irigaray indicates that it is impossible to do so. Mother-daughter relationship is far more complex and could be simultaneously antagonistic and close. As such, definitive disengagement from the “pregnancy” is never possible.