Mödrar som mördar

Abstract

Theme: Motherhood and Mothering. Ill. ©Stina Wirsén Mothers That Murder: The Myling, Baby Farmers, and Mothering In contemporary Swedish children’s literature, mylings and baby farmers make frequent appearances. A myling is the ghost of a murdered child, destined to haunt and expose its assassin. Baby farmers were women paid to take care of unwanted children but sometimes killed them, either directly or through neglect. Both motifs indirectly address issues of motherhood and mothering, and the aim of this article is to discuss how they are represented in children’s literature. In research about motherhood, being a mother is often distinguished from the act of mothering. Motherhood is associated with a biological discourse whilst mothering refers to social practices of care that are associated with the mother but may also be carried out by other people. Both mylings and baby farmers address this distinction but in various ways. In folklore about mylings, the biological mother is traditionally singled out as the infant’s killer. This misogynistic discourse is, to some extent, renegotiated in contemporary non-fictional works about Nordic mythology for children. In fictional works, though, the mother is still portrayed as the sole caregiver for the child and the only one to blame for its death, thus disregarding the distinction between motherhood and mothering. Baby farmers are neither mothers nor are they mothering. Children’s novels set in the past describe the baby farmer as part of a societal industry where a discrepancy between motherhood and mothering is displayed: children are born but not cared for. However, the burden of guilt is shared amongst various social actors, including the fathers. In Gothic fiction set in a contemporaneous society, the baby farmer reveals a deficit in mothering altogether and offers neglect – an anti-mothering – in its place.