Telling Bodies Performing Birth

Everyday Narratives of Childbirth

By: Della Pollock

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Paperback | 14 July 1999 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
352 Pages

Age
22+

Dimensions(cm)
22.85 x 15.45 x 1.67

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Birth stories, Della Pollock tells us, "are everywhere and nowhere," permeating and haunting our everyday lives. In this remarkable volume Pollock explores the myriad ways in which men and women recount the ritual performance of giving birth.

Many of these stories, Pollock observes, rise out of the depths of terror, flirting with disaster only to end with a profound sense of relief at what medical discourse calls a "good outcome." Others represent pain, make counterclaims on reproductive technologies, and suggest complex associations between maternity, sexuality, and body politics in the contemporary United States. Pollock retells stories about some of the injustices that structure giving and telling birth??finding there a reckoning with the unknown and unknowable.

Focusing on the performances of birth stories, Pollock writes an intimate ethnography: an account of listening "body to body" to stories that press the borders of cultural critique with virtuosity, possibility, desire, and risk. She draws on cultural criticism, performance studies, and narrative theory to unpack this long-ignored practice. Most striking, however, are the stories presented here: unsanctioned, bold, fragmentary, and often furtive, they both unnerve and inspire even as they realize and resist cultural norms.

Industry Reviews

Della Pollock's writing seduces us into new realms of theory, experience and narrative until we cannot escape the importance of 'telling bodies, performing birth'. This is a big and beautiful book to be read by one and all.

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Family & Health Parenting: Advice & Issues Pregnancy, Birth & Baby Care Sociology & Anthropology Sociology Sociology & Customs & Traditions Society & Culture Popular Beliefs & Controversial Knowledge Folklore Studies / Study of Myth (Mythology)Sociology & Birth Social Groups

Gender Studies Gender Studies: Women and Girls Cultural Studies Popular Culture Literature, Poetry & Plays History & Criticism of Literature Sociology & Family & Relationships

Acknowledgments	p. IX
Introduction	p. I
Origins in Absence	p. 27
Narrative Rites	p. 61
Practicing Pain	p. 117
Secrets/Doubles	p. 185
Epilogue	p. 249
Notes	p. 253
Works Cited	p. 273
Index	p. 287
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Telling Bodies Performing Birth

Everyday Narratives of Childbirth

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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