Panoramic social minds: Social minds manipulations in ‘A Mother’

Abstract

‘A Mother’ by Joyce tells of Mrs. Kearney’s effort in enhancing her daughter’s musical reputation during the Irish Revival, revolving around a conflict between Mrs. Kearney and a male-dominated group at concerts. Although some studies tend to view Mrs. Kearney as a dominant female and others take her as a victim of gender discrimination, there is no interpretation from the perspective of social minds. This article aims at using social mind theory to explore how the characters manipulate social minds against each other for their own purposes. It is found that Joyce deploys ‘covert double cognitive narrative’, a new paradigm of social minds, to propel the plot, and utilizes behaviourist narration and dialogue predominantly in rendering social minds. Therefore, this new perspective commands a panoramic view of the social minds manipulations in ‘A Mother’. Tracing the social minds this way is essential in understanding the story, shedding light on the Irish cultural paralysis of the time.