In “‘Sad mum lit’ and the truth about parenthood” (Opinion, Life & Arts, January 27), your columnist Emma Jacobs might want to rethink the term “sad mum lit” when referencing works by Ashley Audrain, Julia Fine, Sheila Heti, Lara Feigel, Rachel Cusk and Claire Kilroy.
To describe them as “sad” risks erasing the important criticism some of these books make on patriarchal structures permeating the institution of motherhood and its influence over mothering experiences.
Perhaps “progressive mum lit” would better honour such authors who masterfully capture the unspoken, unglamorous and unvalued reality of early motherhood while embodying in their works the creativity and love that stem from such experiences.
We need these raw accounts to collectively think about how best to empower mothers and caregivers at a wider societal level and it begins by how we define that literary genre.
Adriana Ryan
Duillier, Switzerland