A Reversal of Perspective
The Mother's Voice in Edith Wharton's “The Mother's Recompense”
Abstract
Over the past decade, feminist scholars have shown how the mother-daughter bond falls outside of the accepted social context of men-women relationship and, for this reason, remains unsaid. Wharton's novel can be read as a text that suspends the cultural muteness of the mother, showing instead how disruptive a mother's voice can be when she speaks, like Kate Clephane, as a subject who shapes "her story."
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