Published: 2020-12-011

Is It Really a “Mothers’ Hell”? On Motherhood in the Dramas of Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska

Joanna Warońska
Prace Literaturoznawcze
Section: Different aspects of femininity
https://doi.org/10.31648/10.31648/pl.4570

Abstract

The author draws attention to the complexity of motherhood as one of the themes depicted in the dramatic works of Wojciech Kossak’s older daughter. Considered a moderate feminist in the interwar period, Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska is aware of the fact that having children has become a public matter. It is in the interest of the family, the species and society in general. For this reason, legal regulations are likely to create oppressive situations in which women’s interests and rights are dismissed. In Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska’s plays, the topic of motherhood appears in a variety of circumstances, and the news about pregnancy often transforms into a touchstone situation, sparking a debate on the rights and obligations of an individual towards the human species and their family. Abortion is one of the possible solutions. Yet, while criticising the system of norms and imperatives evolved around the instinct of having children, the playwright focuses on the positive images of motherhood. Good mothers are happy, while bad mothers are condemned. Therefore, while granting the heroines of her plays the right to love and personal fulfilment, Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska remains a traditionalist when it comes to obligations towards a conceived child.

Keywords:

motherhood, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, interwar drama, feminism, abortion in the interwar period

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Citation rules

Warońska, J. (2020). Is It Really a “Mothers’ Hell”? On Motherhood in the Dramas of Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska. Prace Literaturoznawcze, (8), 127–143. https://doi.org/10.31648/10.31648/pl.4570

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