This panel will explore how the issues of adoption, surrogacy, and abortion probe and trouble the boundaries of reproduction and thereby reveal cultural anxieties surrounding motherhood and maternal identity. The goal is to examine the construction and deployment of the concept of ‘maternal desire’ (baby hunger, baby lust) and thereby invite reconsideration of the definitions/boundaries of motherhood. We seek papers that reflect on how bio-essentialized maternal desire is linked to new reproductive technologies such as commercial surrogacy and to the politics of abortion and adoption. The panel will also analyze the social and legal constructions of motherhood and maternal instinct.

Mary Thompson
English Dept./MSC 1801
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
Email: thompsmx@jmu.edu