Bad Mothers and Female Antagonists. Gender constructs and maternal roles in the Harry Potter and His Dark Materials sagas

Abstract

The construction of maternal characters in children’s literature is strongly influenced by both gender canons and the roles these characters play within the story, resulting in different interpretations of motherhood, often structured around two poles: ‘good’ mothers or ‘bad’ mothers, sacrificial mothers or absent and uncaring mothers, ideal mothers or cruel stepmothers. With some exceptions, motherhood often involves a gendered ‘judgment’ that is transformed into a judgmental view of the maternal role: the ‘good’ mothers (who are often the mothers of the heroes and heroines) are figures who adhere to the feminine canon, who are well grounded in the domestic sphere and deeply devoted to nurturing; in contrast, female characters who are outside the canon abandon motherhood or perform it according to new paradigms that do not adhere to social norms, thus becoming the mothers of the antagonists or the antagonists themselves. The essay aims to explore how gender identity, narrative roles, and motherhood intersect through different strategies, leading non-canonical female portraits to ‘deviant’ forms of motherhood. Specific case studies will be examined, namely some 'negative' mothers from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter saga and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials.