关键词: 《男人与天使》; 母爱; 伦理限度; 母性; 美国当代小说; 玛丽• 戈登

Abstract:  “Motherlove” has long been bound to motherhood as its most important parameter and becomes an important ethical criterion for mothers’ existence. However, contemporary American writer Mary Gordon, questioning such a criterion, demonstrates the ethical limit of motherlove and its constructiveness most truthfully in her novel Men and Angels, which gives voice to mothers’ various forms of existence. This paper discusses the ethical limit of motherlove from the perspective of the ontological existence of motherlove which emphasizes that mothers are not just the givers of love but also the subjects of love who are able to love themselves at the very beginning; the dislocation of motherlove which means that motherlove may be oriented to other children instead of their own ones—this can be a huge ethical challenge for traditional concept of motherlove; and the heterogeneity of motherlove which accepts negative feelings like “hatred” as part of motherlove so that the ethical limit of motherlove may be negotiated and the pressure mothers suffer may be relieved. Understanding these three aspects will help readers see the possibility for mothers to thrive in the process of becoming the subjects of love and eventually turn the ethically limited motherlove into the realm of infinite motherlove.

Keywords: Men and Angels; motherlove; ethical limit; motherhood; contemporary American novels; Mary Gordon