Anyaság a kora újkorban. Várdai Kata és lányai kapcsolata
Motherhood in Early Modern Hungary. The Relationship of Kata Várdai with Her Two Daughters

Summary/Abstract: The study argues that the maternal role was central to the identity of early modern aristocratic women, their wifely duties notwithstanding. Drawing on a close reading of the rich family correspondence, it claims, furthermore, that an intimate relationship and close ties between aristocratic mothers and their adult daughters were possible despite the collective nature of contemporary letterwriting and uses of space. In addition to the nuclear and the lineage family, the cultural context of the mother-daughter relationship was the female court, which created horizontal and intimate ties between women as well as spaces for action. Though the mother-daughter relationship was influenced by the dominant cultural concepts of the loving mother and the dutiful daughter, the relationship was shaped to a large extent through everyday negotiations and the interactions of power and emotions.

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