Maternal Encounters

"Maternal Encounters is a bold and beautiful book. ... Baraitser is able, a generation later, to go much further than (Adrienne) Rich in staking a strong claim for the ethical and political importance of the maternal to wider understandings of the human condition ... Baraitser brilliantly employs maternal anecdote in her writing, beginning each chapter with a rich descriptive account of maternal experience, and then further interrupting the 'academic' text throughout the chapter with more anecdotes. ... Baraitser's skill as a writer is dazzling, and it is, in part, this skill that enables her to produce what is one of the most affective and insightful phenomenological accounts of the maternal ever written. ... Despite its theoretical sophistication, this book manages to be incredibly lucid. It flows and is easy to follow and read. ... There are not many academic books that move their readers to tears, make them gasp in recognition or laugh out loud; I guarantee that Maternal Encounters will move you in profound ways." - Imogen Tyler, Lancaster University, UK, in Subjectivity 'This is an extremely unusual, subtle and important book. Lisa Baraitser produces a demanding and timely theoretical argument that presents maternity as a site for the construction of subjectivity and for the development of a new understanding of the ethics of relationality. She draws together an array of contemporary feminist, philosophical and psychoanalytic theory, whilst maintaining an authorial voice that is intensely personal, lively, accessible, humorous and humane. Maternal Encounters is a remarkable achievement.' - Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck College, University of London 'This is a beautifully written text, demonstrating considerable skill. Lisa Baraitser has produced a book that speaks of a scholar who is a highly original thinker, with a capacity to simultaneously craft an engaging story alongside the deft handling of complex theory.' -- Dr Gail Lewis, Reader in Identities and Psycho-Social Studies, Open University