Monster as can be: contemporary gothic in I am Mother

Abstract

This paper investigates how the movie I am Mother (2019), by Grant Sputore, brings into the center of the narrative the relationship between mother and daughter and converges the concepts of the nourishing mother and destructive mother, either a machine-mother or a monstrous body, in the attempt of creating a perfect human being. Thus, we will analyse, using the Gothic Poetics, the relationships between the female characters whom, in different moments, occupy the central space of being mother, as well as ponder on the process of the female identity development in a post-human future. In order to reach this objective, some theoretical references are used, under the lens of a contemporary gothic, concepts such as monstrosity, nourishing/destructive mother and abjection.