Diagnosing Growth: The Problem of Development in Reproductive Culture
Open Access
- Author:
- Dicaglio, Sara Theresa
- Graduate Program:
- English
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 10, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Susan Merrill Squier, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Janet Wynne Lyon, Committee Member
Richard Doyle, Committee Member
Erin Allyson Heidt Forsythe, Committee Member - Keywords:
- feminist theory
reproduction
medical rhetoric
pregnancy - Abstract:
- Through an interdisciplinary examination of the concept of development in reproductive science, literature, and culture, this project argues that twentieth and twenty-first century definitions of development have come to neglect process and time in exchange for a focus on product and space. The most tangible result of this exchange is the assumption that all embryos will develop into live-born babies, and that any pregnancy that does not end this way is an anomaly. The project traces the impact of this model, as well as small moments of resistance to it, through a broad range of sites, including contemporary poetry, twentieth century biology and bioart, and online health forum communities. In so doing, it uses the event of pregnancy and gestation to examine several key questions: How do our fixed conceptions of what it means to be human, alive, and reproducing affect and limit our ability to understand the larger spectrum of reproductive events? What are the impacts of these conceptions on the lives of reproducing people, particularly those whose experience with reproduction does not fit with expected norms? How do these conceptions appear in our cultural imaginations and artifacts, and to what effect? This project illustrates the complex interchange between theoretical concepts, scientific studies, literary and artistic responses, and lived experiences of health.