Towards an Empathetic Reading of Contemporary French Abortion Narratives

My dissertation focuses on an empathetic reading of narratives about abortion by French women writers and filmmakers. The CGII grant will facilitate a summer stay in Paris during which I will complete archival research in the Archives Nationales and participate in an exchange with the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales. I will attend EHESS seminars related to my dissertation research, concerned with confronting questions about the ethical and ontological status of the fetus, and of its loss, within abortion narratives. In the archives, I will consult sensitive archival material concerning the prosecution of housewives who performed clandestine abortions during WW2.