Telling Bodies Performing Birth

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.

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Pollock, Della

Women's Health

Columbia University Press

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.

Papers featured in this issue offer an in-depth examination of the interaction of ethnicity, identity and "multiculturalism" with contemporary culture.

Cultural Studies 11.2

Grossberg, Lawrence

Arts & Photography

Routledge

Taking interdisciplinary and diverse approaches, these thirteen essays explore the multifaceted relationship between performance and history. By considering performance as both a useful frame for understanding historical practices and a mode of historical production itself--performance in history and performance as history--the contributors chart new directions in such fields as cultural studies, contemporary historiography, museum studies, and life narrative research. Geographically and chronologically, the collection's sweep is broad--ranging from the nineteenth century to the present, from Victorian theater to commissions of inquiry in Kenya, from dissent in post-Soviet Lithuania to plantation tours in the American South. Together, the essays make up a work that is truly interdisciplinary in breadth and focus. By combining the methodologies of history and performance studies, the contributors illuminate the structure and function of cultural production in all its forms. The contributors are Michael S. Bowman, Ruth Laurion Bowman, Elizabeth Gray Buck, Kay Ellen Capo, David William Cohen, Tracy Davis, Kirk W. Fuoss, Shannon Jackson, D. Soyini Madison, Carol Mavor, E. S. Atieno Odhiambo, Della Pollock, Jeffrey H. Richards, and Joseph R. Roach.

Exceptional Spaces: Essays in Performance and History

Humor & Entertainment

Movies

The University of North Carolina Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pollock, Della. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pollock, Della

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pollock, Della. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Telling Bodies Performing Birth

Telling Bodies Performing Birth

Cultural Studies 11.2

Exceptional Spaces: Essays in Performance and History