Fertile visions : the uterus as a narrative space in contemporary cinema from the Americas

Fertile Visions conceptualises the uterus as a narrative space so that the female reproductive body can be understood beyond the constraints of a gendered analysis. Unravelling pregnancy from notions of maternity and mothering demands that we think differently about narratives of reproduction. This is crucial in the current global political climate wherein the gender-specificity of pregnancy contributes to how bodies that reproduce are marginalised, controlled, and criminalised. Anne Carruthers demonstrates fascinating and insightful close analyses of films such as Juno, Birth, Ixcanul and Arrival as examples of the uterus as a narrative space. Fertile Visions engages with research on the foetal ultrasound scan as well as phenomenologies, affect and spectatorship in film studies to offer a new way to look, think and analyse pregnancy and the pregnant body in cinema from the Americas. Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on text Introduction The uterus: See womb The Americas Corpus of films Chapter 1: Challenging the pregnancy genre Learning to love abjection Pregnancy as non-fiction Chapter 2: Phenomenologies and pregnancy Collaborative coding as ‘perceptual glue’ Recognizing absence on screen Uterine frame: Ways of looking Emotion and aesthetics Chapter 3: Narrative negotiations in Juno, Gestation/Gestación and Stephanie Daley Juno Gestation Stephanie Daley Chapter 4: Internal landscapes and biotourist narratives in The Milk of Sorrow/La teta asustada, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Apio verde Biotourism Somatic talk: Touch and the belly The Milk of Sorrow Ain’t Them Bodies Saints Apio verde Chapter 5: The recollection-object, breaching the threshold in Up, The Bad Intentions/Las malas intenciones and Birth Up The Bad Intentions Birth Chapter 6: Pregnant embodiment as mise n’en scène in Arrival and Ixcanul Arrival Ixcanul Conclusion Notes Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Filmography References Index "Fertile Visions conceptualises the uterus as a narrative space so that the female reproductive body can be understood beyond the constraints of a gendered analysis. Unravelling pregnancy from notions of maternity and mothering demands that we think differently about narratives of reproduction, which is crucial in the current global political climate wherein the gender-specificity of pregnancy contributes to how bodies that reproduce ? i.e., women ? are marginalised, controlled, and criminalised. Anne Carruthers demonstrates fascinating and insightful close analyses of films such as Juno, Birth, and Arrival as examples of uterus as a narrative space. Fertile Visions engages with empirical research on the foetal ultrasound scan as well as phenomenologies, affect and spectatorship in film studies to offer a new way to look, think and analyse pregnancy and the pregnant body in contemporary cinema from the Americas"-- Provided by publisher