REPRODUCING AND REPRESENTING REPRODUCTIVE POLITICS IN CONTEMPORARY NORTH AMERICAN TEXTS by Heather Latimer MA, University of British Columbia, 2004 BA, University of Victoria, 2002 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Department of English © Heather Latimer 2009 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2009 All rights reserved. However, in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada , this work may be reproduced, without authorization, under the conditions for Fair Dealing . Therefore, limited reproduction of this work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review and news reporting is likely to be in accordance with the law, particularly if cited appropriately. 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The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. Simon Fraser University Library Burnaby, BC, Canada Last revision: Spring 09 ABSTRACT My dissertation examines representations of reproductive politics in North American fictional texts since the early 1980s. I comparatively analyze texts by authors Toni Morrison, Kathy Acker, Shelley Jackson, Margaret Atwood, Nancy Huston, and Larissa Lai, and by film director Alfonso Cuarón, in order to argue that the anxiety surrounding reproductive politics, and especially the abortion debate, has increased since Roe v. Wade both inside and outside the US. I claim that the ideologies of individual “choices” and “rights,” which publicly frame reproductive politics, have been inadequate in making sense of the topic’s complexities, and that these fictional texts offer representations of abortion and other reproductive technologies, such as cloning, outside the confines of this discourse. They therefore present a chance to explore how these politics function culturally and creatively, as they tell stories about reproductive technologies and politics in a variety of ways different from traditional debates about whether or not certain reproductive acts are right or wrong, and in a manner that is often critical of the terms of the debates themselves. The texts help reveal the important connections between narrative and reproduction and highlight fiction’s ability to imagine alternate realities. At the same time, they reveal fiction’s ability to engage with the cultural and creative theories structuring the world in which it is produced, and I also argue that the texts engage with both political history and with feminist cultural and psychoanalytic theories in a way that productively complicates popular understandings of reproductive politics. Ultimately, I argue that the fictional texts help us see that reproductive technologies, and their associated politics, are deeply connected to cultural ideas about maternity, family, citizenship, race, technology, and, more recently, ideas about terror and terrorism— anxieties that cannot be contained under the rubrics of individual “rights” and “choices.” Keywords: abortion; cloning; reproductive politics; biopolitics; pregnancy; cyborg. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I want to thank my co-supervisors, Dr. Margaret Linley and Dr. Peter Dickinson, for their generosity, support, and encouragement. This project would not have been possible without their incredibly insightful comments and critiques along the way, as well as their unwavering attention and interest. They have not only served as intellectual models, but have left me with a clear understanding of what it means to be a mentor, and the generosity of time and spirit that entails. These thanks extend to the third member of my committee, Dr. Susan Brook, who stimulated much of the fourth chapter through her seminar on terrorism, and offered support and friendship throughout the writing process. I also want to thank the rest of my examining committee, including Dr. Lara Campbell and Dr. Susan Squier, for their time. Thanks also to the other faculty members, graduate chairs, and staff in the English department who have helped and supported me throughout my time at SFU. Warmest thanks to all the friends and colleagues who have been on this journey with me both inside and outside the academy. Sam and Kim, especially, I cannot imagine having done this without you. Thank you to my family, who originally taught me what it meant to ask questions about the world and have always given me confidence. Finally, an endless thanks to Colin Carmichael, who began living with me the very month I started my PhD. Thank you for allowing me to have the same conversation with you for five years, for all the encouragement, and for being so utterly loveable. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval ............................................................................................................................... ii Abstract ............................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................v Introduction Reproductive Déjà Vu ...........................................................................................................1 Chapter One Privacy, Patriarchy, and Abortion: Reproductive Politics in The Handmaid’s Tale , Blood and Guts in High School , and Don Quixote which was a dream.................... 38 Chapter Two From Politics to Ethics: Maternal Abjection, Subjectivity and Community in Instruments of Darkness and Paradise...................................................................... 83 Chapter Three Cyborgs, Clones, and Freaks: New Reproductive Technologies in Patchwork Girl and Salt Fish Girl .................................................................................................... 142 Chapter Four The Limits of Citizenship: The Fetus and the Refugee in Children of Me n.................... 181 Conclusion Bio-Reproductive Futures................................................................................................215 Works Cited .......................................................................................................................220 v Introduction Reproductive Déjà Vu In a recent 2008 Globe and Mail article about popular Hollywood films Knocked Up (Apatow 2007) and Juno (Reitman 2007), columnist Judith Timson poses the question, “When did abortion become a dirty word?” (L1). Timson notes that abortion is either sidestepped or easily dismissed as an option in both films, even though each presents its female protagonist in a situation that would warrant a thoughtful consideration of abortion in real life. For instance, in Knocked Up Katherine Heigl’s character, Alison—a successful and ambitious journalist who is struggling financially and gets pregnant through a one-night-stand—will not even say the word abortion, and dismisses the idea outright. In Juno , one of the main reasons Ellen Page’s character, sixteen-year-old Juno, decides not to go through with her planned abortion is because the clinic “smells like a dentist’s office.” Timson compares these situations to the fact that thousands of women do choose to have abortions daily, and is left wondering “whether pop culture is trying to pretend that abortion doesn’t exist,” whether these films are “part of a subtle attitudinal shift against abortion,” or whether abortion is simply “the last Hollywood taboo” (L2). Pro-life conservatives in Canada and the US certainly hope these films