Maternal Detachment in Beauvoir’s Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (1958) and Sarraute’s Childhood (1983)

Abstract

This essay examines the detachment that is prevalent in the maternal relationships presented respectively in Simone de Beauvoir’s Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter and Nathalie Sarraute’s Childhood, arguing that such detachment is caused by the writer witnessing contradictions in their parents’ behaviours, thus destabilising their authority through the eyes of a child. Maternal detachment is shown to be the dominant consequence of contradictions in parental behaviour, due to learned patriarchal values as well as preeminent physical and emotional distance between each writer as children and their mothers catalysing the growth of distrust. The use of autobiography as a form of presenting maternal detachment is examined briefly as the essay concludes, arguing that the narrative voice of Sarraute’s autobiography reveals prevailing guilt towards the revelation of her mother’s behaviour, whereas Beauvoir has made peace with maternal detachment.