“Effective Disembodiment:” Female Patienthood and Reproductive Health in Elisa Albert’s After Birth and Pamela Erens’s Eleven Hours

Abstract

Abstract Historically, female patienthood has been defined by an expectation of passivity and the concession of bodily autonomy. After Birth by Elisa Albert (2015) and Eleven Hours by Pamela Erens (2016) shed light on the status of the modern female patient through the lens of her treatment throughout the process of childbirth in a clinical setting. The increasing medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth in the United States has added a compelling layer to the existing tension between women and the institution of medicine. Positioning these texts in conversation with the treatment of women at the hands of healthcare workers allows us to contextualize the fictional narratives, which themselves offer a dialectal framework to facilitate our understanding of female patienthood.