Wombs: A Creative Fiction Exploration of Childfreedom

Dowdy, Melody

Wombs: A Creative Fiction Exploration of Childfreedom

dc.contributor.advisor	Mayr, Suzette
dc.contributor.advisor	Dobson, Kit
dc.contributor.author	Dowdy, Melody
dc.contributor.committeemember	Seidel, Jackie
dc.contributor.committeemember	Vanek, Morgan
dc.date	2023-11
dc.date.accessioned	2023-10-10T18:40:38Z
dc.date.available	2023-10-10T18:40:38Z
dc.date.issued	2023-08-24
dc.description.abstract	Wombs is a work of fiction in the form of fragmented vignettes. The work presents the life of a childfree woman, Jessa, and how her choice to not reproduce affects the relationships in her life – romantic, platonic, and familial. My intention behind this thesis is to present and represent the validity of childfree women. Grounded in fictional realism, my imagined world, opens with an at-home abortion and presents discussions of abortion and abortion health care throughout the manuscript. These sections stem, in part, from the June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade and its subsequent effect on Canadian women through Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall's Bill C-311. The novella is set in Canada's present day, where abortion care is available nationwide. The manuscript also invokes a deliberate fragmented structure which illustrates how childfreedom does not fall into the confines of traditional storytelling, and through extension, society's constructions of the nuclear family. My manuscript occupies the space outside of these carefully constructed lines. The subsequent exegesis contextualizes abortion, the validity of childfreedom and the role of mothers and mothering in nature and within (and outside of) ideological scripts. My hope is that this work challenges the idea of the non-mother as lacking, implements childbearing as a conscious decision, and champions abortion rights as human rights.
dc.identifier.citation	Dowdy, M. (2023). Wombs: a creative fiction exploration of childfreedom (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1880/117368
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher.faculty	Graduate Studies
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	childfreedom
dc.subject	reproductive rights
dc.subject	abortion
dc.subject	women's rights
dc.subject	fiction
dc.subject.classification	Education--Language and Literature
dc.title	Wombs: A Creative Fiction Exploration of Childfreedom
dc.type	master thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	English
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Master of Arts (MA)
ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudent	I require a thesis withhold – I need to delay the release of my thesis due to a patent application, and other reasons outlined in the link above. I have/will need to submit a thesis withhold application.