Resistant Reproductions: Pregnancy and Abortion in British Literature and FilmBy FranBigman, New York: Routledge, 2024. 187 pp. $180.00 (pbk)

Focusing on British fictions and films about pregnancy and abortion from 1907 to 1967, Fran Bigman, through an intensive reading of abortion narratives, reveals how this seemingly private and trivial topic is intricately intertwined with political issues of gender, class, and eugenics. Revolving around a key concept of “reproductive justice,” the book makes it clear that sex and reproduction are far more than individual issues, but also involve collective considerations such as class and community, subverting the simple binary between “reproduction” and “non-reproduction.” If read intertextually with Foucault's The History of Sexuality and Butler's thoughts, this book will undoubtedly be a work of a history of ideology and culture with a grand vision. In the introduction, the author uses both Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale and Leni Zumas's novel Red Clocks to depict a gloomy American society devoid of reproductive justice where women are gradually deprived of any power after they lose the fundamental right to their own bodies. By contrast, as a country in which reproductive techniques made substantial development and the Abortion Act of 1967 was issued to protect women's right to abortion, Britain seems to be a utopia of reproductive justice, just like Huxley describes in his novel Brave New World. However, Bigman argues in the following chapters to break the stereotype about pregnancy and abortion. Abortion has long been mistakenly considered resistance to suppression, while pregnancy as obedience. With this as the basic logic of the whole book, the author gradually illustrates the complexity behind this issue. In the first chapter, the author discusses the neglected works of British female authors before Brave New World, including Naomi Mitchison's play Saunes Bairos, Rose Macaulay's novel What Not, and Charlotte Haldane's Man's World, which collectively show women's strong fear of reproductive technique controlling women's bodies. In these works, while eugenics is taken as the fundamental doctrine, artificial wombs become the dominant channel of reproduction, and male scientists or certain government departments can decide which woman has the qualification to get reproduction, and women are even divided between “fertile” and “non-fertile”; under these circumstances, pregnancy is not merely imagined as a natural impulse filled with human warmth, but also a process of fighting for freedom and subverting man's attempt to build a country of good fertility through reproductive technology. In Chapter 2, Bigman discusses Naomi Mitchison's writing about contraception and abortion in the 1930s. Her works expose the immense pressure and responsibility posed on women when it comes to their reproductive choices. During that period, abortion was considered illegal, immoral, and full of controversial conduct, especially when contraception was gradually considered as a necessary and rational act. Just as in her novel We Have Been Warned, abortion even becomes a metaphor for failure and a symbol of moral decay in capitalist society. Similarly, in the third chapter, abortion, from the perspective of middle class, threatens the survival of middle class. In novels like Voyage in the Dark, Eyeless in Gaza, the plot involving abortion is depicted as dangerous, especially when it comes to the irresponsible reproduction of the lower classes, will cause promiscuity of eventual “decline of the race.” In Chapter 4, abortion narrations are analyzed from a male perspective; in such novels as Waste, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, and The Aerodrome, narration has always been the turning point of male characters and compares it to men's pain, thus men's emotions and dilemmas are emphasized, but women's voices are muted or even ignored. Furthermore, these narratives also reveal that misogyny has long existed. Similarly, in Chapter 5, through analyzing the radio play Alfe and its various adaptations to theater and film, the author argues that abortion is far from a women's right; rather, the abortion narrative reveals much more complex issues such as race and the decline of White people. In the sixth chapter, the author discusses novels about the narration of premarital pregnancy among the 1950s–1960s by introducing Jewish, Black, gay, and working-class characters. The author not only explores the plight of unmarried mothers but also expresses the author's ideal of building a tolerant and pluralistic society. The novels seem to strive to break the negative social attitude toward abortion and provide more social recognition and support to unmarried mothers. The conclusion, using a new historicist approach, intertextually reinterprets the Abortion Act of 1967 in Britian and many novels, plays, and films. It shows the complex political and social issues condensed in the issue of abortion. Despite advances in laws and social attitudes, abortion continues to be a moral issue, and women still face a long journey toward achieving reproductive justice. In addition, there is much to praise about this book. First, the core concept of “reproductive justice” is used throughout, making the book more logical. Second, in addition to literature and film, the Abortion Act of 1967 in Britian serves as another auxiliary text to thoroughly understand the main points of this book, giving it a distinct feature of new historicism. Third, while the book focuses on the plight of women in works by female writers, it also explores male perspectives, further highlighting the complexity of the topic. Overall, the book successfully presents the complex issues hidden behind pregnancy and abortion narratives in British literature and film, and it will undoubtedly provoke future discussion about this topic.