Literature and Medicine post-Roe: Seeing Menstruation in Victorian Women’s Writing
Saturday, October 14, 2023
7:30 AM – 8:45 AM ET
Location: Chasseur (Third Floor)
In the wake of the Dobbs decision, media channels were flooded with information and speculation about pregnancy timing, period-tracking apps, and menstrual surveillance, and my own research on menstruation in Victorian women’s writing seemed even more fraught with topical meaning. I was especially moved by an editorial published in Scientific American, in which Christine N. Metz argues that “as women’s reproductive health has been propelled into the national spotlight, it is time to freely talk about and investigate menstruation and menstrual blood to promote women’s health.” Metz, an expert in medicinal biochemistry, was referring to the diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities of menstrual blood. To what extent might her argument also be interpreted as a call to action for literature and medicine scholars? My paper makes a case for the formation of a literary history of menstruation to support ongoing efforts in clinical fields and academic disciplines to destigmatize menstrual blood as an object of study. In my four-part presentation I will (1) discuss the need for literary studies of menstruation in post-Roe health humanities, (2) conduct a literature review of existing studies of literature and menstruation and describe the methods and impact of these studies, (3) briefly overview my own research on menstrual surveillance in Victorian women’s writing and discuss how historical discourses of bodily regulation intersect with current debates about reproductive rights, gender, and bodily autonomy, and (4) prompt reflection about possibilities for new methods and approaches to literature and menstruation.