I was quite intrigued by the depiction of 1950s suburban housewife life in "Significant Moments in the Life of my Mother". I was also interested in the latent mother-daughter tension in the short story, especially the gulf that seems to exist between the cloistered life of the author's mother and the author's more urban consciousness.
Hence, I started searching for multimodal texts that would enable Singaporean students to understand the specific cultural context of this short story. I found 1 video that could be used in class:
- How is the video similar to or different from your life at home? (i.e. comparing this video to a typical 21st century Singaporean household)
- How is this video similar to or different from Atwood's description of her childhood and of her mother's role at home?
- How is the mother portrayed in Atwood's short story? How is the daughter portrayed in the short story? What might Atwood be trying to say about the mother-daughter relationship?
- Why is the short story titled "Significant Moments in the Life of my Mother"? What are the "significant moments" that the author highlights? Are they really significant, why or why not?
Hey Shu May! I really like how this video portrays the role of hoursewife's/women in the 1950s and 60s. Interestingly, I wonder if some of our students might feel that this video also exactly depicts some of their mothers! Could possibly extend the conversation to talk about whether the role of women have changed much after feminism.
ReplyDeleteYes I was thinking about that too :) It's eerily similar to what we observe in many Singaporean households. I agree that extending it to a critique of feminism (what it has achieved and what has not changed) will make it a very thought-provoking discussion.
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