Literary notes about maternal (AI summary)
The term "maternal" in literature is employed in a wide variety of contexts, ranging from expressions of nurturing care and tenderness to denotations of kinship and symbolic totemism. Authors like Louisa May Alcott and Jane Austen use it to express warm, affectionate behavior and gentle authority—as in a "maternal way" of addressing all mankind ([1]) or when describing a mother's protective pride ([2]). At the same time, literary and scholarly works invoke "maternal" in discussions of instinct and ritual; Freud and Durkheim, for example, consider the maternal as a significant element in both the formation of personal identity and the grounding of religious symbolism ([3], [4], [5], [6]). In other texts, the word extends to familial descriptions, where maternal uncles and grandparents carry social and cultural significance ([7], [8], [9]). Whether used to depict the soothing, instinctive nature of a caregiver’s love, or as a marker of cultural and familial ties, "maternal" enriches literary portrayals by invoking a complex interplay of emotion, duty, and identity.
- It does my heart good to see them forget business, and frolic for a day," answered Jo, who now spoke in a maternal way of all mankind.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott - Mrs. March laughed, and smoothed down her maternal pride as she asked,— "Well, my swan, what is your plan?"
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott - We might not understand how this material has come to be a substitute for the maternal, the feminine.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - [377] Another survival of the same sort is the one concerning the maternal totem.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - [980] Similarly, among the Arunta, Altjira is the name of a great god; it is also the name of the maternal totem.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - Such maternal fancies, so natural and seemingly so universal, appear to be the root of totemism
— from Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud - Our maternal uncle arrived opportunely; he whispered to Father some sage counsel, garnered no doubt from the ages.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - My maternal grandfather was an attorney in good practice.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - In Malabar the word uncle means maternal uncle.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston
