Narrating Bodies

Abstract

This special issue examines representations and constructions of pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding in contemporary Japanese fiction in a selection of literary texts from the 2010s to the 2020s. It thus joins ongoing conversations and existing studies concerned with the representation of reproduction and motherhood in modern and contemporary Japanese culture (Saito, 1994; Seaman, 2016; Castellini, 2017; Harada, 2021). However, the essays in this section focus on depictions of pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding in terms of narrating bodies as a way to articulate women’s experiences of physical and psychological oppression within Japanese society and redefine new forms of mothering, fathering, and parenting. This research investigates the ambivalence and complexity around motherhood and embodiment in contemporary women’s fiction. At the same time, it explores the connections between literary studies and contemporary sociocultural dynamics of gender and family.