The phenomenology of gravidity: reframing pregnancy and the maternal through Merleau-Ponty, Levinas and Derrida

The Phenomenology of Gravidity explores Continental philosophy of feminism and offers a voice that articulates the specific process of gestation and the concrete experiences of pregnant women as both gendered and particular. Jane Lymer develops the philosophical and ethical implications of an understanding of embodied gestation in feminist philosophy which acknowledges the developmental importance of the maternal-foetal relation to human cognition and our intersubjective relations. Through an engagement with the work of Merleau-Ponty, Levinas and Derrida, The Phenomenology of Gravidity outlines the role of maternal embodiment in our development. It offers a feminist and ethical framework for a hospitality of gravidity which welcomes the place of the pregnant mother in all her guises