Gothic engineerings in childrearing manuals and feminist novels: Benjamin Spock meets Renate Dorrestein

Abstract

This article investigates two Gothic novels by Renate Dorrestein, namely Unnatural Mothers and A Heart of Stone, paying special attention to the motif of the house, which plays a prominent role in Gothic fiction, and the representation of motherhood. We argue that Dorrestein criticizes enlightened, scientifically based approaches to the raising of children, especially the socalled “fun morality” of Benjamin Spock and Penelope Leach. Dorrestein foregrounds the dark sides of family life, focusing on the problematic sides of the mother-daughter relationship. We argue that Dorrestein’s representation of motherhood is in keeping with Freud’s views on the matter, which is not all that surprising considering that the Gothic novel formed an important source of inspiration for Freud. Dorrestein’s novels give short shrift to Dr. Spock’s domestication of the darker sides of Freud’s thinking.