The Mother with the Button Eyes: An Exploration of the Story Construct of the ‘Other-Mother’

Authors

  • Jax Goss Macquarie University, Australia

Keywords:

Neil Gaiman, Coraline, Other-mother, Lucy Clifford, evil step-mother, Ginny, monstrous, monstrosity

Abstract

Neil Gaiman's (2002) children's novel, 'Coraline', which has recently been made into a stop motion movie, introduces its readers to a truly frightening figure: the Other-mother. This Other-mother comes out of a long tradition of stories in which the villain is a mother (or grandmother) figure, starting with the evil stepmothers so prevalent in fairy tales, and continuing in recent books such as Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' series in which the protagonist's mother is a major villain for most of the story. Gaiman drew this character partially from an obscure 19th century story by Lucy Clifford called 'The New Mother', in which a pair of naughty children lose their kind, loving mother, who is replaced by a monstrous one with glass eyes and a wooden tail. In this paper I will examine the parallels between Clifford's 'New Mother' and Gaiman's 'OtherGmother'. I also consider briefly another example of this nightmare mother in 'Ginny' in order to explain the pervasive and persistent presence of this figure in children's stories.

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Author Biography

  • Jax Goss, Macquarie University, Australia

    Jax Goss is currently a distance Masters student in children’s literature at Macquarie University. She started out with an undergrad degree in Drama and Philosophy, and now works in IT at the University of Otago. She is hoping to continue with a PhD in the future.

References

Bettelheim, B (1976) The Uses of Enchantment. London, Penguin Books.

Clifford, L (1882) The New Mother, http://www.geocities.com/orwellus/newmother.htm

Coats, Karen (2008) ‘Between Horror, Humour and Hope: Neil Gaiman and the Psychic Work of the Gothic’, in A. Jackson, K. Coats and R. McGillis (eds) The Gothic in Children’ s Literature: Haunting the Boundaries. New York, Routledge, pp.77-92.

Fisk, N (1973) Grinny. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Puffin Books.

Gaiman, Neil (2002) Coraline. London, Bloomsbury.

Olsen, R (2002) The Booklist Interview – Neil Gaiman, http://www.ala.org/ala/booklist/speciallists/speciallistsandfeatures1/booklistinterviewneil.cfm

Rudd, D (2008) ‘An Eye for an I: Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and Questions of Identity’, Children’s Literature in Education, 39, p. 159-168.

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Published

2009-01-01

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Section

Articles

How to Cite

“The Mother with the Button Eyes: An Exploration of the Story Construct of the ‘Other-Mother’” (2009) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 19(1), pp. 69–74. Available at: https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/pecl/article/view/1159 (Accessed: 8 November 2024).

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