An Artistic Autoethnography on the Public Fetus

An Artistic Autoethnography on the Public Fetus explores artistic work with the iconic image of the fetus and the personal consequences of the image by analyzing the so-called public fetus within a feminist approach.

This book develops a deeply interdisciplinary body of research, engaging with feminist debates on reproductive technology and imagery, art theory, visual histories of anatomical imagery, cultural critiques of the myth of the artistic genius, Gestalt understandings of perception and memory, and anthropological theories of liminality. Through blurring the artistic with the scientific, it explores the potential of autoethnography to serve as a form of consciousness raising through which to create new images and stories that counter the public fetus in support of reproductive autonomy and social justice.

This book will be useful to feminist scholars who work with issues related to gender, reproduction, sexuality, and autoethnography. At the same time, the book will be of value to undergraduate and graduate students in gender studies as an example of how an autoethnographic process can make unrecognized experiences of gender known to a person.