The Fiction of Choice Abortion Plots, Gender and Patriarchy in Four Twentieth-Century Texts

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Wallace, Miriam

Keywords

Abortion, Gender Criticism, Atwood, Margaret, Brautigan, Richard, Didion, Joan, Stillitoe, Alan

Area of Concentration

British and American Literature

Abstract

One in five pregnancies ends in abortion in the United States today. In an effort to better understand abortion as a sociopolitical issue, I engage in this thesis with four works of literature in which an abortion features prominently: Play It As It Lays (1970) by American author Joan Didion and Surfacing (1972) by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958) by British author Alan Sillitoe and The Abortion: An Historical Romance, 1966 (1971) by American author Richard Brautigan. Through the lens of a gender criticism which incorporates poststructuralism, new historicism, psychoanalysis and feminist theory, my analysis of these four texts explores the complex relationship between abortion, gender, and the nature of patriarchy�that nebulous system which oppresses everyone in our society (regardless of sex) and in the perpetuation of which the vast majority of us are complicit. I find that these texts reveal true reproductive freedom and choice to be an impossibility in our culture as it stands, and the need for a radical restructuring of our society. I also theorize about the role literary analysis can play in dismantling the patriarchal discourse that produces and reproduces institutionalized oppression.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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