From Choice to Possibility in Sheila Heti’s Motherhood

Abstract: Sheila Heti's 2018 novel, Motherhood, reorients the question of motherhood around possibility rather than choice. Misread by some critics as a memoir about the decision not to have a child, the novel instead emphasizes openness, chance, and change in order to articulate a form of freedom that is tied to indeterminacy rather than sovereignty. The novel points to the limitations of narratives of choice, suggesting instead that women’s experiences around reproduction await further description. Motherhood is thus engaged in the kind of project called for by the feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray: to define motherhood from the perspective of women. As both Irigaray and Heti make clear, this project must be shared by all women, whether or not they can or will have children. Heti’s novel demonstrates that, over fifty years after feminism’s second wave, motherhood continues to be circumscribed by patriarchy, and it points toward a feminist motherhood