After the silence: Narrating infanticide as the agent/mother

This dissertation analyzes the cultural and personal narratives surrounding and subsequent to maternal infanticide in works of literature that represent this traumatic experience and examines the ways wherein agency, which is tenuous for marginalized mothers, becomes accessible by means of acting and speaking through trauma. The literature examined in the dissertation suggests that once the mother character has killed a child, she experiences symptoms resembling those exhibited by victims of trauma. The infanticidal mother in literature often presents a narrative characteristic of testimonials offered by trauma victims in her effort to locate a space within which she can exhibit the only type of mothering available to her; thus, this study employs trauma theory to examine these maternal narratives that surface in the aftermath of the infanticidal moment. Through the lens of trauma theory, this study investigates the importance of locating the appropriate audience to witness the narrative following a traumatic experience and attests to the redemptive nature of the testimonial narrative in personal and communal healing subsequent to infanticide. The mothers' narratives that follow infanticide speak to historical traumas, both personal and those shared, and serve to redefine the experience of motherhood. These narratives emerge from each mother's agency in committing infanticide and emphasize the power found in the speech act itself as the presence of the individual mother's narrative offers alternative versions of womanhood and motherhood that resist the essentialist ideal.