Academic Mothers’ Reception of The Lost Daughter

This article analyses how the film The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal, 2021), based on Elena Ferrante’s novel The Lost Daughter (La figlia oscura, 2006), is received by academic mothers in Türkiye. The fact that Leda, the main character of the film, is not only a mother but also an academic significantly affects the plot of the film, and her identity as an academic is as important as being a mother in the story. Therefore, the film provides suitable material for discussions on motherhood, which is an important topic for feminist research. Within this framework, a total of 16 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with mothers who are academics like Leda. The study analyses the relationship between the participants’ interpretations of the film The Lost Daughter and the circulating discourses on motherhood, which are considered contextual factors. Janet Staiger’s historical materialist approach is used to discuss the connections between audiences’ interpretations of the film and the dominant and marginal motherhood discourses. Moreover, how the interviewed academic mothers relate to the characters in the film, especially the main character Leda, is also examined in the study.