The Case for Single Motherhood: Contemporary Maternal Identities and Family Formations (Rhetoric, Culture, and Social Critique)

Review

“Within rhetorical studies, the book is well grounded in leading scholars in the field—Buchanan, Hundley and Hayden, Fixmer-Oraiz, Cloud—while also interweaving key motherhood studies scholars and/or related scholars across fields—O’Reilly, Hays, Douglas and Michaels, Solinger, Roberts, Collins, and Halberstam. In fact, one strength of the volume is the author’s interweaving of all these scholars in the service of understanding ESM’s rhetorical power and limits within motherhood.” —Lynn O'Brien Hallstein, author of Bikini-Ready Moms: Celebrity Profiles, Motherhood, and the Body "The Case for Single Motherhood is compelling in its engagement with texts by Single Mothers by Choice (SMCs), and the arguments and analyses productively engage feminist rhetorical scholarship, especially scholarship that takes up rhetorics of motherhood, fertility, and reproduction." —Jessica Enoch, author of Refiguring Rhetorical Education: Women Teaching African American, Native American, and Chicano/a Students and Domestic Occupations: Spatial Rhetorics and Women’s Work. "The Case for Single Motherhood confronts contemporary discourse about what makes a “traditional” family and advances a comprehensive challenge to the stigma embedded in the politics of “family values.” Katherine Mack complicates these dominant frameworks by elevating the courageous voices and reflective contributions of elective single mothers, thus expanding definitions of mothering.  This captivating and reflective analysis illuminates a transformative and legitimizing path forward for 21st century maternal rhetorics that engage difference while embracing inclusivity."  —Jennifer Borda is professor of communication at the University of New Hampshire. She is author of The Motherhood Business: Consumption, Communication, and Privilege and Women Labor Activists in the Movies: Nine Depictions of Workplace Organizers, 1954-2005.

About the Author

Katherine Mack is professor of English at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. She is author of From Apartheid to Democracy: Deliberating Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa, as well as of scholarship in Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Rhetoric Review, and Reception: Texts, Readers, Audience, History.