Literary Discussion Lab

What do literature and TV series show about the (self-)assessment, control, and availability of women’s bodies?

Menstrual cycles, fertility, pregnancy, or mental health: Apps and digital health applications are collecting more and more data about the female body. They promise knowledge, preventive care, and self-determination, but at the same time create new notions of what is considered healthy, normal, or regular.

Literature and TV series have long been exploring where this trend might lead. In Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” or Nora Burgard-Arps’ “Wir doch nicht” (eng. “Not us”), fertility, health, and physical and mental data become tools of social control. But where does self-monitoring end and surveillance begin?

In the literary discussion lab, we want to read and watch scenes from novels and TV series together and discuss how women’s bodies and their health or illness are observed, evaluated, and controlled.

Featuring:
Dr. Sabrina Huber and Sandra Hein, literary studies, at the University of Wuppertal