The Mother Is Dead, Long Live The Mother

Background: This essay investigates family trauma and belonging within feminist postcolonial contexts. The creative practice research has been influenced by Susanne Paola Antonetta’s Tell It Slant and Philip Lopate’s The Art of the Personal Essay, especially through the construction of the whorl of reflection as a structural strategy in creative practice research. Under the Influence by Scott Russell Sanders is another key text that has functioned as a model of creative practice. My research asks, how does a feminine subject at the intersection of race and gender reconcile with sovereignty, accountability and belonging while confronting intergenerational and cultural issues in a globalised world? Contribution: ‘The Mother Is Dead, Love Live the Mother’ is a personal essay sparked by a single event of familial disowning. The essay investigates socio-cultural histories, myths and patriarchal norms around female accountability, including differentiation of the concept of accountability and female personhood within different cultures. The essay is intentionally composed of fragments of insight that reflects the associative method of thinking that accompanies a traumatic experience, in keeping with Lopate’s reflective methods above. The essay accepts and responds to female personhood as a relative moral construct accomplished through interactional accomplishments. Significance: The Bellingham Review is a premier literary journal from Western Washington University (US) established in 1977. Works from this journal have appeared further in Harper’s, Utne ReaderI and Pushcart Anthology. With a circulation of 2500 copies per issue, it is a Tier 7 journal as per Erika Krause’s Ranking of 500-ish Literary Magazines.