Mother-daughter conflict in Margaret Atwood's “the art of cooking and serving” and Jamaica Kincaid's “girl”

الملخص EN

Family conflict refers to active opposition between family members.

Conflicts may involve different combinations of family members: it can be conflict within the couple or between parents and children or between siblings.

The increase in conflicts between mothers and daughters, for instance, arises out of clash of roles, which include household responsibilities, authority, social life and friends and increased desire for autonomy and independence.

The way a mother treats her daughter can be a type of conflict, which affects the identity of the daughter.

Thus, the mother-daughter in the context of the present study refers to two different parenting styles, firstly, the role-reversal relationship between a mother and a daughter focusing on the idea of “parentification” in Margaret Atwood's short story “The Art of Cooking and Serving” (2006), and secondly, the relationship between an authoritarian mother and her eleven year old daughter in Jamaica Kincaid's short story “Girl” (1978).

The study depicts the impact of the mothers' negative parenting behaviors on the identities of their daughters through a psychosocial analytical approach.

Detailed analysis of the mothers and daughters in both short stories is provided using Diana Baumrind's parenting styles and various studies including Erik Erikson, Shiva Shayesteh, Pacey H.

Krause and Donna Hoskins.

In doing so, the research raises the following questions: How do the two daughters experience their relationships with their mothers? And in what way negative parenting behaviors create a conflict between the mother and her daughter which causes identity confusion ?