In the work of art “The Cradle”, a mother mirrors the position of her baby’s arm, suggesting a certain moment of “self-sameness”. Does the mother/child relation upset the self/other relation and represent a “both/and” (a moment perhaps prior to world)? Levinas questions Heidegger’s privileging of an individualized Being-towards-death as leading to authentic moments of vision [Augenblick], yet he references the father/son relation as exemplary of relational authenticity. Is the mother too immanent to transcend? How may we think such relational authenticity in terms of our natal origin (being-towards-birth?), beginning in the cradle? How may this “first world” arise as the “sheltering agent”?

From Jill Drouillard's (Re)productive Tensions: Aletheiac Revealing in Morisot’s “Cradle” and “Wet Nurse”.  ¶ 4:19 PM