Beyond blogging: How mothers use creative non-fiction techniques in digital environments to dislodge the mask of motherhood

Abstract

Since the sixteenth century, essayists such as Michel De Montaigne have been writing life’s minutiae; trying to find words to ‘portray passing…from day to day, from minute to minute’. Even in its earliest articulation the word essay expressed an intention to venture forth into unfamiliar territory. In recent years, blogs have become an avenue for previously silenced writers to publish their personal experiences and perspectives, and no more so than in the ever-growing sphere of ‘mummy bloggers’. Though the term has developed social currency, it has also begun to encompass any and all online writing by mothers and includes a spectrum of styles. This paper suggests a new reading of blogs by mothers, using essayist Vivian Gornick’s framework of ‘situation’ and ‘story’. By identifying the online writing which understands ‘why one is speaking’ and ‘who is speaking’, we are able to distinguish blogs that successfully utilise creative non-fiction techniques to articulate and advocate the voice of the mother. The article argues that this approach best enables writers to, as maternal theorist Susan Maushart calls it, ‘unmask motherhood’. In considering further the connections between the texts and life itself, the paper examines how digital representations reflect and help define or (re)shape the realities of women and families, and how mothering and being a mother are political, personal and creative narratives unfolding within the digital world. It aims to illuminate how the writers construct their online maternal identities to subvert the scripts of their families, cultures and nations in their quest for selfknowledge, agency and artistic expression. The paper is therefore interested in the intersection between recent research in creative non-fiction practice and maternal scholarship. It is believed that together these disciplines can provide alternate interpretations of how writing mothers use digital spaces to negotiate, reconcile and resist traditional notions of mothering and maternal roles, and how they offer alternative matrifocal narratives for women and society. Finally the paper argues for a new category of ‘mummy bloggers’ – what I term ‘maternal essayists’ – to represent writers who engage in the practice of creative non-fiction writing to celebrate the centrality of mothering. Furthermore, it is suggested that these women have been some of the most influential writers of the twenty-first century.