2ARTs

2ARTs aims to analyse literary and artistic narratives of Medically Assisted Reproduction (MAR) through a multidisciplinary, intermedial, and transnational approach (Italy, France, England). Today, as parenthood has become an option in Western societies, these same societies are experiencing a dramatic increase in infertility. The issue of infertility holds a highly paradoxical place in public debate: it is both an intimate and societal concern, affecting 3.3 million individuals in France alone, yet it remains largely invisible. To combat this phenomenon, since the birth of Louise Brown, the first child conceived through in vitro fertilization in 1978, reproductive technologies have continued to evolve, initiating a movement that now extends far beyond the realm of therapeutics to encompass politics and ethics. Indeed, technological and medical innovations related to procreation and the female body raise numerous ethical and political questions, including women’s health, reproductive justice, social and racial inequalities, as well as a redefinition of parenthood. In addition, such advances draw attention to a topic – motherhood and the desire for children – which, even within feminisms, in the wake of Simone de Beauvoir’s thought, has long been sidelined and viewed with suspicion since it was associated with the patriarchal yoke from which women aimed to be freed. Moreover, while reproductive rights were a central theme of feminist movements in the 1970s, leading to widespread agreement on demands such as the freedom of choice regarding abortion and contraception, deep divisions have emerged concerning reproductive technologies, often accused of perpetuating patriarchal control over women’s bodies. Over the last fifteen years, there has been a growing interest in these issues in literature and the arts: women have increasingly recounted their battered bodies, and the individual and relational upheavals they undergo during the process of medically assisted reproduction. These narratives often acquire the form of autobiographies, cinematographic works, graphic novels, and podcasts. The thread which links these different productions is the desire to use art and literature to address the issues surrounding assisted reproduction: infertility, desire, shame, injustice, the defective and damaged female body, limitations, failure, the relationship with the medical profession, often lacking in empathy and humanity, overmedicalisation, gynaecological and obstetrical violence, couple relationships, but also the difficulties faced by lesbian couples, the inequalities, and the discrimination. Literature and art play an important role: they can be healing, or at least prevent one from succumbing to pain; they can open a window onto a subject that is rarely discussed and break the silence, lifting the veil on topics that are still taboo; they can create a shared knowledge useful to other women and other couples who find themselves alone facing a dehumanising and alienating path. By integrating feminist and gender studies with medical humanities and narrative medicine, 2ARTs has both scientific and social aims: on the one hand, it is a pioneering study in the field of literary criticism, because it concerns an innovative and recent topic, which has yet to be explored. The interdisciplinary and intermedial approach adds significant scientific value to the project. Its transnational and comparative approach will highlight how the socio-cultural specificities of each country influence literary and artistic productions. On the other hand, 2ARTs will be aimed at the general public: by the creation of an interactive digital platform for the comparative analysis of cultural narratives of MAR, intended for fertility centres in France and abroad, it aims to support, through the sharing of experiences and stories, the psychological care of individuals involved in a medically assisted procreation programme.