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- Title
INFERTILE WOMEN AND THE NARRATIVE WORK OF MOURNING: BARRIERS TO THE REVISION OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVES OF MOTHERHOOD.
- Authors
Maggie Kirkman
- Abstract
Infertility can be a source of profound grief; infertile women mourn the loss of the fertile self and their desired children. Part of the work of mourning can be understood as revising the autobiographical narrative to accommodate infertility's disruption to the plot of one's life. Drawing on aspects of a qualitative analysis of the narratives of infertility told by 31 Australian women, this article suggests potential barriers to the work of revision, including cultural and social factors such as the dominance of the motherhood narrative, the absence of a collective narrative of the non-mother, and lack of audience support; as well as more personal factors such as a lack of meaningful alternative goals and the existence of hope. The complexity of the work of revision and the need for caution in encouraging premature revision is exemplified by the role of hope in dealing with the blow of infertility. (Infertility, Narrative, Grief, Involuntary Childlessness, Qualitative Research)
- Subjects
FEMALE infertility; PSYCHOLOGY of women; GRIEF
- Publication
Narrative Inquiry, 2003, Vol 13, Issue 1, p243
- ISSN
1387-6740
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1075/ni.13.1.09kir