College of Staten Island Professor Emerita of English Sarah Benesch has released Pronatalism: Discourses and Counterdiscourses, a bold and timely new work. Published by Multilingual Matters, the book explores an underexamined subject: women who voluntarily choose not to have children.
Drawing from her background, as an applied linguist, in critical discourse analysis, Benesch investigates the ways in which language is used to enforce motherhood as women’s only viable life choice. She carries out this analysis by examining discourses such as “maternal instinct,” “biological clock,” and “having it all,” alongside 20th-century eugenics discourses and policies in the United States, the UK, and France. Read more ...
