"In this physically small but conceptually rich volume, Cherniavsky begins by situating the notion of essentialized motherhood within the constitution of modern bourgeois subjectivity and, more specifically, of a rational democratic social order in early national America." —American Literature
" . . . an admirable contribution to the current debates over the meaning and implications of motherhood in contemporary culture." —UCG Women's Studies Centre Review
"With its wide range of reference and use of sophisticated critical paradigms, this book is a demanding study that will be of special interest to readers concerned with 19th century American fiction and current debates surrounding the maternal." —Studies on Women Abstracts
That Pale Mother Rising concerns the persistence of essentialized motherhood in the midst of the postmodern, linking nineteenth-century sentimentalism to the American founders' understanding of the democratic social body.
