1st Edition
Reproduction and the Maternal Body in Literature and Culture Bodies of Knowledge, 1726-1818
1. PART I | Mapping the Field
1.1. Introduction: In the Delivery Room
1.1.1. Birth Pangs, Or: The Initial Spark
1.1.2. Parturition: Positioning & Toolbox
1.1.3. Dates of Birth: Times, Texts & Place
1.1.4. First Words: Questions & Steps
1.1.5. Postpartum, Or: A Short Synopsis
1.2. Context: Historicising the Reproductive Body
1.2.1. On the Dissection Table
1.2.2. Histories of Sex & Sexuality
1.2.3. Maternal Myths & Monstrous Mothers
1.2.4. Midwifery & Obstetrical Practices
1.2.5. Representational Practices
1.2.6. Problematising Representation
1.3. Framework: Beyond Representationalism
1.3.1. The Future of Feminist Eighteenth-Century Studies
1.3.2. (Re)Thinking (With) the Body
1.3.3. Material Cultures & The Problem of Representation
1.3.4. Cyborg Imagery & The Importance of Embodiment
1.3.5. A Material-Discursive Approach
1.3.6. Synopsis: Thinking Through the Body
2. PART II | Science, Sex & Secret Bodies of Knowledge
2.1. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
2.1.1. Introduction
2.1.2. Swift & The Problem of Meaning
2.1.3. Secrecy & Microscopical Masculinity Crises
2.1.4. Monstrous Reproduction & Entangled Tactility
2.2. John Cleland’s Fanny Hill (1749)
2.2.1. Introduction
2.2.2. Cleland & Erotic Culture
2.2.3. Mechanical & Botanical Metaphors
2.2.4. Botany, Erotica & Reproduction
2.3. Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (1759)
2.3.1. Introduction
2.3.2. Sterne & The New Species of Writing
2.3.3. Contesting Theories & Practices of Reproduction
2.3.4. (Re)Producing (Material) Metaphors of Conception
2.4. Eliza Fenwick’s Secresy, Or: The Ruin on the Rock (1795)
2.4.1. Introduction
2.4.2. Fenwick, Family & Feminism
2.4.3. Hygienic Motherhood & Mechanical Mothers
2.4.4. (Re)Productive Monsters & Cyborgian Agency
2.5. Mary Wollstonecraft’s Maria, Or: The Wrongs of Woman (1798)
2.5.1. Introduction
2.5.2. Wollstonecraft’s Revolutions & Womanhood
2.5.3. Maternal Metaphors & Embodied Horrors
2.5.4. Gender, Class & Abortion as Agency
2.6. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Or: The Modern Prometheus (1818)
2.6.1. Introduction
2.6.2. Shelley & The Conception of Frankenstein
2.6.3. Science, Secrecy & The Control of Reproduction
2.6.4. Monstrous Bodies & Monstrous Medicine
3. PART III | Stitching the Pieces Together
3.1 Stitching
3.1.1 The British Enlightenment & The Rise of New Knowledges
3.1.2 (Re)Productive Agency
3.1.3 Towards a Material History of Reproduction
4. Bibliography
Biography
Jennifer S. Henke is a literary and cultural studies scholar with a PhD from the University of Bremen, Germany, and a Venia Legendi for Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies from the University of Bonn, Germany.
