The Pregnancy ≠ Childbearing Project: A Phenomenology of Miscarriage (original) (raw)

Pregnancy Loss in Transnational Film and Literature

Reproductive Justice and the Humanities Symposium and Network Launch, The Treehouse, University of York, UK, 21st June, 2024

In the last decade we have assisted to an increasing number of previously hardly discussed literary accounts representing miscarriage, stillbirth, and therapeutic termination of pregnancy. In the post-Roe vs. Wade era, abortion has increasingly gained public and political attention. However, the taboo that revolves around various experiences of pregnancy loss sill persists in contemporary societies. My paper investigates from an interdisciplinary and transnational perspective how grief and loss are represented in a series of literary and cinematic contemporary productions that address stillbirth and perinatal loss. By analyzing, interpreting, and comparing a corpus of transnational texts and films that address similar stories, I explore how miscarriage, therapeutic abortion, stillbirth, and perinatal loss are perceived and portrayed in contemporary society, and highlight how they are represented across languages and cultures. By close reading, I shed new light on how the tropes of trauma and loss shape these narratives and I scrutinize strategies adopted by the protagonists to navigate their loss and improve care and empathy in society and the medical domain.