Inheritance & Motherhood: A Literary Salon
In its new quarterly edition, Granta focuses on the way in which feminism informs addresses the power imbalance that exists between men and women, and last week I went to the The Foundling Museum for their literary salon on motherhood.
The Foundling Hospital was created in 1741 by the philanthropic Thomas Coram as a place for ‘the education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children’.
The Foundling Museum seemed a peculiar venue to explore the theme of motherhood as mothers are entirely absent, existing not in memory but imagination. Upon arrival, children were given new names to protect the identities of their mothers who risked social ostracism by having children out of wedlock.
In tandem with strict sexual mores, there was absolutely no state provision for impoverished mothers and babies and hence many of the young mothers simply could not afford to feed their children. Inheritance and motherhood, in The Foundling Museum, is that of loss and sorrow.
As you walk through the exhibit, voices of Foundlings literally speak from the walls and ceilings. Much of what they say relates to the stigma of being ‘illegitimate’ and lacking a heritage. In the middle of the room sits a red a chair with small speakers hanging around it with the voices of Foundlings talking about their experiences.
The artistry of the curation underscores the implicit tragedy of mothers forced to give up young children to an institution, the red chair would not be out of place in someone’s living room but the voices draped around it speak of loneliness, stigma and regimentation.
Directly beside the chair are letters mothers had written to the hospital inquiring about the wellbeing of their children, letters which were kept hidden from the children in question, that illustrates the continuing care the mothers had for their children.
The conditions of women’s lives from the 16th to the 19th century is starkly highlighted by The Foundling Museum. The curious dictum that motherhood could only truly occur within the circumstances dictated by patriarchal mores.
The oral history exhibition calls to mind Kiran Desai’s novel The Inheritance of Loss; although a postcolonial text, the notion of inheriting loss, that is a dispossession of self and identity are themes that run throughout the exhibit.
Following the oral history exhibit, its two curators spoke briefly and then showed a short film of three former Foundlings discussing the experience of meeting their birth mothers.
One case involved one woman who chose not to meet her birth mother because it would have broken her (adoptive) mother’s heart and another case where a man speaks of how dispiriting meeting his birth mother was. The short film was incredibly poignant and I could not help but feel particular empathy with the birth mothers who were rejected by their now adult children.
The night slowly drew to a close first with the dramatic reading of Julie Otsuka’s The Children. A short story that explores the centrality of mothers in the family, it was particular plaintive when framed within The Foundling Museum.
The disquiet that underpinned the evening powerfully illustrates the importance of feminism, not just for women who, only sixty years ago, were forced to give up children because of restrictive and cruel customs but also for those same children who grew up without love within the severity of an institution.
Using the oral history exhibition, short films and readings Granta intelligently explicated inheritance and motherhood whilst demonstrating the importance of feminism, and I would recommend purchasing The F Word edition of Granta and visiting The Foundling Museum.
Sara Badawi
What do you think?