This Giving Birth : Pregnancy and Childbirth in American Women's Writing

by Tharp, Julie Ann; Maccallum-Whitcomb, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780879728076
• ISBN10: 0879728078
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

Compelling essays which underline the central place pregnancy and childbirth hold in women’s writing. Embracing three centuries of prose and poetry, the anthology traces the evolution of American maternity literature, exploring the difficulties mothers faced as they struggled to transform themselves from objects into maternal subjects. Women as diverse as Anne Bradstreet, Anne Sexton, Sharon Olds, Kate Chopin, Toni Morrison, and Louise Erdrich all labored to reclaim the birthing process by giving voice to experiences and emotions long devalued by a patriarchal culture. Their voices resonate throughout this collection.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(8)
Susan MacCallum-Whitcomb
Julie Tharp
The Circular Journey of Poetry and Children	9	(10)
Karen Haas-Howland
Bringing Forth Life from Body to Text: The Reclamation of Childbirth in Women's Literature	19	(20)
Michele Lise Tarter
Claiming Our Birth-Write: The Poetry of American Mothers	39	(16)
Susan MacCallum-Whitcomb
Thirty-Nine Weeks: Pregnancy and Birth Imagery in Kate Chopin's The Awakening	55	(12)
Gail Lippincott
Southern Conceptions: Feminist Procreation in Julia Peterkin's Scarlet Sister Mary and Frances Newman's Hard-Boiled Virgin	67	(16)
Debra Beilke
Maternal Conceptions in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Tar Baby: ``A woman has to be a daughter before she can be any kind of woman''	83	(20)
Andrea O'Reilly
Seeds of Shame or Seeds of Change: When Daughters Give Birth to Their Fathers' Children	103	(22)
Brenda Daly
``Into the Birth House'' with Louise Erdrich	125	(16)
Julie Tharp
``Some Epic Use for My Excellent Body'': Redefining Childbirth as Heroic in Beloved and ``The Language of the Brag''	141	(16)
Ellen Argyros
The Birth of New Languages	157	(16)
Kimberly M. Blaeser
Contributors	173