Polarization and Literary Aesthetics: The Case of Conversion Narratives on Abortion

This article analyzes two conversion narratives on abortion to explore the role of cultural forms and literary aesthetics in representations of polarized topics. The first memoir, The Hand of God (1996/2013) by Bernard N. Nathanson (1926-2011), is the personal account of a medical doctor who was a co-founder of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL) in the late 1960s and then became an outspoken anti-abortionist before he converted to Catholicism. The second text is Unplanned (2010/2014), the story of Abby Johnson (1980-), who was a Planned Parenthood director in Bryan, Texas, before she joined the Coalition for Life and became more committed to her Christian faith. My close reading of these two autobiographies draws on concepts from life writing, genre studies, literary history and feminist affect theory. It foregrounds the strategies and principles through which abortion is constructed as a polarized issue. I suggest that the conversion narrative is particularly useful in this context because prior to the narrator’s conversion from one position to its polar opposite, the narrator has to establish the two positions or camps as polar opposites. The more oppositional these stances are, the more interesting (or sensational) is the conversion. My analysis foregrounds through which strategies or principles Nathanson and Johnson construct abortion as a polarized subject matter. In juxtaposing conversion narratives as a cultural form and polarization as a social phenomenon, I suggest that the former provides a useful lens to understand the latter.