A. Abortion is highly stigmatized, and since individuals often don’t feel comfortable sharing their own story, this exploration of fictional abortion narratives creates a space where the issue can be discussed and those who have experienced abortion may feel less alone
B. The few writers to discuss abortion in fiction often assume that fictional depictions of abortion would be subversive and feminist, but I show that these depictions are ambivalent and complicated.
C. This book challenges the association of abortion with the radical and pregnancy with the conventional, opening up space to see how either can be a resistant or a regressive act and thus deconstructing the binary between reproduction and non-reproduction.
D. Resistant Reproductions establishes the need for a historicist approach to British pregnancy and abortion narratives. Instead of anachronistically interpreting abortion narratives as “pro-choice,” I combine close readings of literary works with archival research that allows me to place these works in the contexts of medical, legal, and social histories.
E. By taking abortion as a theme rather than focusing on certain writers or periods, I challenge the canon and bring the work of writers like George Orwell into dialogue with that of lesser-known female writers such as Rosamond Lehmann and Naomi Mitchison.