Mātišķība mūsdienu latviešu dzejā: Inga Gaile, Anna Auziņa

The article “Motherhood in contemporary Latvian poetry: Inga Gaile, Anna Auziņa” brings attention to and analyses a woman’s specific experience – motherhood, the mother’s role and identity in the works of Inga Gaile and Anna Auziņa, two bright Latvian poets, revealing the characteristics of a woman in contemporary social reality. The different experiences of women, intimate and other, reflection about the topical societal and cultural problems, which influence women’s lives, as well as protests against the inherited societal stereotypes regarding different women’s roles, including the many layers of a mother’s role, are all brightly depicted by both poets. The study looks for answers to topical, meaningful questions – what is motherhood, and how is it constructed? Can motherhood be only experienced by a woman? How does the experience of motherhood in real and literary terms differ from the cultural and societal view, in which mother is a symbol of selflessness and gentle care? What are the specific criteria for a mother’s role and how does reaching or failing to reach such criteria affect a woman? The analysis of poetry works is based on the theoretical and methodological field of feministic literature and criticism. The experience of motherhood reflected by the poets is divided and reviewed in four gradations: a woman’s attitudes towards the role of the mother, the fulfillment of her duties and her relationship with that experience; bodily experience (pregnancy, process of childbirth); the mother-child relationship (upbringing, a child’s role in women’s lives); motherhood and different familial models (the experience of a single mother, etc.).