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Unborn
composition
posted on 2021-02-26, 00:00 authored by Maria TakolanderUnborn
History
Pagination
44-45Language
engResearch statement
POETRY, DEFAMILIARISATION AND CHILDBIRTH Research Background Pregnancy and childbirth have been emptied of their power and strangeness by the repetition of taboos around women’s bodies, the medicalisation and sterilisation of childbirth, and the banal sentimentality of consumer culture. Poetry about pregnancy and childbirth has also tended towards the expression of an affect of wonder that underplays embodiment in ways that are problematic for women’s identities. Research Contribution This long three-part poem, inspired by own experience of pregnancy, embraces the remit of the Russian Formalists to deploy defamiliarization to overcome the automatism of perception and to see as candidly as possible. The procedure of defamiliarization resonates with the perspective of a child, a newcomer to the Earth, who is seen and who sees everything for the first time. Here, pregnancy is reclaimed as an experience of the culturally abjected female body, which is contrasted with a line drawing of the female body in a pregnancy guidebook. Research Significance The value of this poem is attested to by: its selection for this national anthology; its status as an anthology piece with previous publication in the national and international anthologies Thirty Australian Poets (UQP), Contemporary Australian Poetry (Puncher & Wattman) and The Turnrow Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry (US); its publication in the peak national journal Meanjin and a special issue of Double Dialogues; and its inclusion in my highly acclaimed book of poems The End of the World, which was published by Giramondo and positively reviewed in The Los Angeles Review of Books among many other forums nationally and internationally.Publication classification
JO3 Original Creative Works – Textual WorkScale
NTRO OtherEditor/Contributor(s)
Kurz E, King S, Delahunty CPublisher
Recent Work PressPlace of publication
Canberra, A.C.T.Source
What We Carry: Poetry on ChildbearingUsage metrics
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