Elective Affinities: Motherhood and Families Without Borders

Abstract

Heterosexual normativity often underwrites fantasies of the family, perhaps in response to the changes wrought by the decline of a male breadwinner. The premise of partnership bears the mark of post-Enlightenment European marriage, founded on hard-won premise of mutual attraction and love. Unless we cast a wide-angle glance and recognize that arranged marriages remain the norm in many regions of the world, we fail to see the site-specific nature of the assumption that partnership involves personal choice. The topic of familial and romantic love as represented in the cultures of migration and immigration is as complex as it is culturally specific. Narratives of romantic love can create spaces for blood feuds and political allegories alike. Love stories, both tragic and jubilant, provide a well-established trope for narrating intercultural relationships. Some involve celebrating the institution of marriage; others challenge the hegemony of heterosexual partnership, with all its social and legal privilege.