Working through maternal ambivalence: the wake-up call of Chanson douce

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines Leïla Slimani’s 2016 international bestseller Chanson douce through the prism of the work’s portrayal of maternal ambivalence. Such ambivalence is analyzed in relation to the two working mothers represented in the text, Myriam and the nanny Louise, and contextualized within socio-historical, literary and psychoanalytical parameters. The article draws on a wide range of theoretical and ‘applied’ readings of maternal ambivalence, ranging from the writings of Simone de Beauvoir to Rozsika Parker, to suggest that the institution of motherhood continues to be a protected, idolized space that, as Adrienne Rich maintained almost forty years ago, has little in common with the actual experience of motherhood. A close reading of Slimani’s text suggests the need for a more measured response, both readerly and social, to the portrayal of supposedly monstrous maternal conduct. By creating a much-needed literary space that allows for the discussion of some of the less socially approved components and feelings of motherhood, Chanson douce dialogues with other current international cultural representations of maternal ambivalence—whether Elena Ferrante’s The Lost Daughter and its recent filmic version, or Eliane Glaser’s Motherhood. It thereby promotes a more considered, contextualized understanding of the many and often contradictory experiences that make up mothering.