Articulating Life's Memory U.S. Medical Rhetoric about Abortion in the Nineteenth Century

by Stormer, Nathan

• ISBN13: 9780739104309
• ISBN10: 0739104306
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-09
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

Articulating Life's Memory offers a unique view of the history of abortion in early America. Nathan Stormer's work moves beyond general histories of medicine, science, and women; it provides specific insight into how the earliest medical writings on abortion served to create cultural memory. Nineteenth-century medical texts presented the act of abortion as a threat to the carefully circumscribed concepts of nation and race. Stormer analyzes a wealth of literature (and illustrations) from the period to explore the rhetorical techniques that led early Americans to presume that abortion put the integrity of all of American culture at risk. The book's first part provides a layered context for understanding medical practices within the rhetoric of memory formation and sets early antiabortion efforts within the wider framework of nineteenth-century biopolitics and racism. In Part II of the study, Stormer examines the substance of the memory constituted by these early medical practices. Making a major contribution to the study of rhetoric, Articulating Life's Memory will be invaluable to scholars researching reproductive rights and feminist and cultural histories of medicine.

Author Biography

Nathan Stormer is assistant professor of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	ix
Preface	xi
Part I: Memory in Early Medical Abortion Opposition
Medical Practice, Memory, and Antiabortion Rhetoric	3	(18)
The Politics of Life and Memory	21	(20)
Somatic Confessions	41	(22)
Part II: Articulating a Memory of Life
Organic Discourse	63	(26)
Embodying a Matrix	89	(30)
Prenatal Space	119	(24)
Conclusion: In Living Memory	143	(8)
Notes	151	(50)
Bibliography	201	(22)
Index	223	(12)
About the Author	235