Mediating generation: the mother-daughter plot

This article explores the influence of artistic parents on the creativity of their children, juxtaposing theories by Harold Bloom who sees generation as oedipal rivalry in a patrilineal geneaology as opposed to Virginia Woolf's theories of the matrilineal artistic heritage as feminine creativity handed down from mothers to daughters. The author suggests that women artists have grown up with elective-artist mothers for the first time in the 20th century and this has contributed to their ability to produce new forms of art; references to the work of Rachel Whiteread are highlighted.