Description
Trade Review"Weingarten provides a rich analysis of literary representations of abortion and the problem of pitting 'life' against 'choice' that will appeal to scholars of literature, reproductive cultures and politics, and feminists situated across the disciplines."— Alys Eve Weinbaum, author of Wayward Reproductions: Genealogies of Race and Nation in Trans-Atlantic Modern Thought
"In a time when there are daily threats to women’s reproductive rights, Weingarten’s
Abortion in the American Imagination is prescient and needed, reminding us all to question our discursive assumptions about a notoriously divisive issue."— American Studies
"This absorbing, well-argued book presents a compelling survey of late-19th- and early-20th-century literary and cultural documents that reflected and shaped attitudes toward abortion. Weingarten offers fascinating readings of well-known works...and studies them alongside less-known works...and various films. In addition to providing illuminating close analyses of particular scenes in these works, Weingarten carefully contextualizes contemporary politics. Highly recommended."— Choice
"The lucidity and vibrancy of its major claims make
Abortion in the American Imagination a first-rate book. Weingarten provides a fascinating reconception of modernist and contemporary battles with abortion and offers a huge contribution to this critical topic."— Dale M. Bauer, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Biopolitics of Abortion as the Century Turns
2. The Inadvertent Alliance of Anthony Comstock and Margaret Sanger: Choice, Rights, and Freedom in Modern America
3. The Eugenics of Bad Girls: Abortion, Popular Fiction, and Population Control
4. Economies of Abortion: Money, Markets, and the Scene of Exchange
5. Making a Living: Labor, Life, and Abortion Rhetoric
Epilogue: 1944 and Beyond
Notes
Works Cited
Index
