Unveiling the ‘Mask of Motherhood’: Daughter Decodes Mother’s Postpartum Struggle in Maya Shanbhag Lang’s Memoir What We Carry (2020)

Sumana Mukherjee^1* & Amrita Satapathy^{2  
1,2} School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, India. *Corresponding author.

^{Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 16, Issue 4, 2024. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v16n4.03
Full-Text PDF Issue Access}
Abstract

Mother and motherhood have always been associated with an unachievable archetype- strong, competent, effortless, untroubled, and invincible. Transmitted from mothers to daughters, this image has symbolized the trope of the ideal mother and motherhood for ages. The incessant expectations from Indian mothers as idols of altruïsm and boundless affection have generated a fabricated idea of motherhood. This situation often places new mothers in a bind, the starting point of which begins with not recognizing their postpartum struggle. Further, it imposes a burden on such mothers by thrusting them into a state of mental anxiety and depression. Maya Shanbhag Lang’s (2020) memoir What We Carry deals with the unvoiced and yet crucial topic of postpartum depression. While battling her postpartum depression, Maya seeks her ‘perfect’ mother’s (a renowned psychiatrist) help and support to overcome her post-natal struggles. Unwittingly she realizes that her mother is fighting old age and dementia. By using the theories of Susan Maushart’s ‘mask of motherhood’ and Andrea O’ Reilley’s ‘empowered mothering’ this paper seeks to find out how Maya’s postpartum depression and her mother’s dementia brings out the inherent ‘maternal guilt’ and the faltering corporeality of motherhood and gives an empowered definition of mothering.

Keywords: Mask of motherhood, Postpartum struggle, Maternal guilt, Empowered mothering, Depression, Dementia.