Everyday World-Making: Toward an Understanding of Affect and

Toward an Understanding of Affect and Mothering Affect is a slippery scholarly term that has been at the centre of social theory debates since the “affective turn” of the 1990s. Early affect research began with the attempt to distinguish affect from feeling and emotion; however, subsequent work began to question and blur these categories as it became apparent that a trans-disciplinary framework was necessary to account for the dynamic and multifaceted nature of affect. As a result, it can sometimes be difficult to identify where affect begins and ends. This collection approaches this difficulty as an invitation to question and challenge categorizations and strict definitions, both in relation to affect and to mothering. Unlike affect, “mother” is often assumed to be a straightforward, common sense kind of word. Yet, both the motherhood studies literature and first-hand accounts from self-identified mothers make it abundantly clear that the boundaries of “mother” are neither clear nor static. Furthermore, affect, mothering, and especially the affects of mothering can be seen as so ordinary or “everyday” that they can easily be rendered invisible or inconsequential. Attending to the intersections of affect and mothering is therefore a reclamation of the everyday as a culturally, socially, and politically relevant arena of world-making. This cross-disciplinary collection considers the intersection of affect and mothering, with the aim of expanding both the experiential and theoretical frameworks that guide our understanding of mothering and of theories of affect. It brings together creative, reflective, poetic, and theoretical pieces to question, challenge, and re-conceptualize motherhood through the lens of affect, and affect through the lens of motherhood. The collection also aims to explore less examined mothering experiences such as failure, disgust, and ambivalence in order to challenge normative paradigms and narratives surrounding mothers and mothering. The authors in this collection demonstrate the theoretical and practical possibilities opened up by a simultaneous consideration of affect and mothering, thereby broadening our understanding of the complexities and nuances of the always changing experiences of affect and mothering. Table of Contents: Intro: Understanding Affect and Mothering: An Introduction by Julia Lane and Eleonora Joensuu; Chapter 1: Sisterly Conversation: Considering Affect with and Through the Pregnant and Birthing Body by Eleonora Joensuu and Sofia Joensuu; Becoming and Performing Mother Chapter 2: Milk by Kari Maren; Chapter 3: Navigating the Waters of Early Motherhood: Somatic Awareness, Creative Expression, and Being Held by Stephanie Park; Chapter 4: A Poetics of Maternal Failure by Julia Lane; Chapter 5: Objects of a Maternal Haunting by Anna Johnson; Chapter 6: Empty Maternal: Simulating Maternal Care in Marina Abramovic’s The Artist is Present by Justyna Wierzchowska; Mothering and the Potentials of “Dark” Affect Chapter 7: That Baby will Cost You: An Intended Ambivalent Pregnancy by Dr. Sandra L. Faulkner; Chapter 8: Blood, Mud, Poop, and Vomit: Re-imagining Disgust Through the Mother-Child Relationship by Eleonora Joensuu; Chapter 9: Unforgivable or Outlaw Emotions? The Heart of Maternal Darkness in Grazia Verasani’s From Medea by Alessandro Castellini; Chapter 10: Fail by Kari Marken; Manoeuvering the Boundaries of “Mother” Chapter 11: Anishnaabe Fasting: Respecting the Power of Creation by Nicole Bell; Chapter 12: “Mothering the Mother”: Doulas and the Affective Space by Brenda Benaglia; Chapter 13: Instinct, Expertise, Connection: The Affective Experience of Mother’s Intuition by Emily Sadowski; Chapter 14: Families We Don’t Choose: Affects of Resisting the Institution of Motherhood by Lisa Poole; Chapter 15: Sisterly Conversations: Considering Affect Through Mothering Experiences by Julia Lane and Trang Do