Date: 2016
Type: Book
Symbolic patterns of childbirth
Bern : Peter Lang, 2016
HÄNSCH, Anja, Symbolic patterns of childbirth, Bern : Peter Lang, 2016
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/41064
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
This study investigates long-lasting cultural constructions of childbirth. Four symbolic patterns of childbirth emerge from the analysis of a variety of texts ranging from myths, philosophy, literature and religion to ethics of modern medicine. On a symbolic level «The Supremacy of the Male» attributes the coming into existence of a child primarily to male «pro-creation.» «The Supremacy of the Female», contrarily, relates childbirth to conception, pregnancy and giving birth on part of the woman. «Theoretical, Spiritual and Political Natality versus Childbirth» pictures childbirth as lower in value as the realms of ideas, religion, the political or the arts. In contrast to this, «Harmony between Spiritual/Theoretical Natality and Childbirth» shows that spiritual birth and childbirth can also be intertwined. It is argued that different symbolic patterns of childbirth may imply different gender relations and different views on «life» in general. The theoretical part of the book is based on Hannah Arendt’s philosophy of natality and on Martin Heidegger whose ideas on death are used for a philosophical conception of the woman giving birth.
Table of Contents:
-- 1. Childbirth as Symbolic Patterns, Experience and Performance -- 2. A Conception of Childbirth -- 3. Symbolic Patterns of Childbirth -- 4. The Supremacy of the Male -- 5. Theoretical, Spiritual and Political Natality versus Childbirth -- 6. The Supremacy of the Female -- 7. Harmony between Spiritual/Theoretical Natality and Childbirth -- 8. Final Remarks: A Baby Has Been Born - So What?
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/41064
ISBN: 9783039104321; 9783035108866
Publisher: Peter Lang
Initial version: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/5140
Version: Published version of EUI PhD thesis, 2000
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