This edited volume addresses how single mothers and fathers are represented in novels, self-help literature, daily newspapers, film and television, as well as within their own narratives in interviews on social media. With proportions varying between countries, the number of single parents has been increasing steadily since the 1970s in the Western world. Contributions to this volume analyse how various societies respond to these parents and family forms. Through a range of materials, methodologies and national perspectives, chapters make up three sections to cover single mothers, single fathers and solo mothers (single women who became parents through assisted reproductive technologies). The authors reveal that single parenthood is divided along the lines of gender and socioeconomic status, with age, sexuality and the reason for being a single parent coming into play.
Chapter 11 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
1.Introduction.-
2. Representation of Single Mothers in Petra
Soukupova's Contemporary Czech Prose: Guilty Mothers and Uninvolved Fathers.-
3. Young Single Motherhood in Contemporary German and Irish Films: Lucy,
Jelly Baby and Heartbreak.-
4. Unwed and Unwanted: Sofia and the Taboo of
Single Motherhood in Morocco.-
5. Advice Books for Single Mothers Raising
Sons: Biology, Culture and Guilt.-
6. Single Dads in the Entertainment Arena:
Hegemonic Hierarchies and Happy Endings.-
7. Single Fathers with Daughters in
American Film.-
8. DILF or Ditched? Representations of the 'Single Father' in
Swedish Internet-based Forum Discussions.-
9. On the Margins: The Experiences
of Single Women who Conceive at Australian Fertility Clinics.-
10. Faire un
bébé toute seule [ A child on ones own]: Challenging Frances Patriarchal
Reproductive Laws in Single Mothers Blogs and Discussion Forums.-
11.
Reluctantly Solo? Representations of Single Mothers via Donor Procedure,
Insemination and IVF in Swedish Newspapers.-
12. Plan B: Single Women,
Romantic Love and the Making of Babies in The Back-Up Plan and The Switch.
Berit Åström is Associate Professor of English Literature at Umeå University, Sweden. Her research focuses on the representation of mothers, motherhood and mothering in literature, film and television. Her recent publications include The Absent Mother in the Cultural Imagination (2017).
Disa Bergnehr is Professor of Education at Linnaeus University, Sweden. Her primary research areas are (nuclear, single and refugee) family life, home-school relations, schooling in disadvantaged areas, childrens socialization, and childrens and parents' wellbeing and agency.
