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Conceiving Histories

Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present

Isabel Davis Anna Burel

$95

Hardback

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English
MIT Press
25 March 2025
A fascinating and beautifully illustrated account of trying to conceive in both the past and the present.

A fascinating and beautifully illustrated account of trying to conceive in both the past and the present.

Inspired by the author's own experiences, Conceiving Histories brings together history, personal memoir, and illustration to investigate the culturally hidden experience of trying to conceive. In elegant, engaging prose, Isabel Davis explores the combination of myth, fantasy, science, and pseudo-science that the (un)reproductive body encounters in pursuit of a viable pregnancy. The book chronicles the trying-to-conceive lifecycle arc from sex education at school, through the desire to be a parent, into the specifics of trying and struggling to conceive. It also looks back at conception throughout history to open a new vista on what we live with today.

A central argument of Davis's is that historical people lived with the unknown just like we do but were more explicitly able to acknowledge it. In an age of assistive reproductive technologies, the act of embracing uncertainty seems difficult. Although the topic of not conceiving is potentially painful, this is not a grim book; more than grief, it is motivated by curiosity, wonder, compassion, and even humor. With 108 full-color illustrations, Conceiving Histories is also a beautiful material object, an intentionally playful antidote and supplement to online search engines-the resort of so many embroiled in fertility challenges.
By:   ,
Imprint:   MIT Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 254mm,  Width: 178mm, 
Weight:   567g
ISBN:   9780262049481
ISBN 10:   0262049481
Pages:   360
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Contents Introduction Annunciations 1 Frogs: What your Sex Ed Never Taught You 2 Pads: How to Join the Bump Club 3 Broody Mary: Narrating the In-Between 4 Wind and Waves: How to Self-Help 5 Credit: How the Money Rolls Out 6 Jeux d’esprit: Testing the Limits 7 Wind-Eggs: Conceiving of Things Conclusion Seeing the Unbecoming Historical Figures Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Isabel Davis leads a research theme on Collections and Culture at the Natural History Museum in London, and she is Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, and Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Reading. Anna Burel is a London-based artist and illustrator whose artwork encompasses textiles, sculpture, drawing, photography, and collage. Her work investigates the female bodily experience through an exploration of history and traditional storytelling like myth and fairytale. Isabel and Anna have worked together since 2015, holding an exhibition of their work in London in 2017.

Reviews for Conceiving Histories: Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present

“Davis resists a chronological narrative or overarching argument. She wants to reject the idea that the story of conception has a predictable plot. The dreamy, associative nature of the book sinks the reader into the uncertain and indeterminate state of trying to conceive, of early pregnancy, of miscarriage.” – London Review of Books


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