Repro-Fiction: Synthesising Literature and Reproductive Healthcare

Objective

Elizabeth Grosz has astutely observed that the entire history of Western thought is permeated by “a profound somatophobia” (1994, 1). Female bodies, particularly their reproductive processes, have been viewed within medicine as prone to illness and disorder. They have historically been characterized as impure and polluting, with ‘leaky’ boundaries that disturb social order. Such representations have contributed to the reality that many conditions specific to women, such as endometriosis and dysmenorrhea, lack sufficient research, attention and prioritization, and have not received adequate funding and resources. This project contends that literature is where we should seek to gain oft-overlooked and undervalued insights into women’s healthcare practices across Europe. The project explores representations of the reproductive body as both a contested site and a potent source of knowledge and considers how contemporary writers connect their bodily trauma with the body politic. This project will increase cohesion between literary, medical, and policy discourses and create a template for analyzing and interpreting 'repro-fiction' that can be replicated in other geographical locations to envision a philosophy of reproductive justice where care for the body takes center stage.