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Abortion and Body Politics: A Feminist Reading of the Lil Episode in The Waste Land
LI Yan, LI Lihua
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2026.05.003
Donghua University, Shanghai, China
As a milestone work of modernist poetry, T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land presents alienated gender relations that serve as an important entry point for analyzing the spiritual crisis of modernity. This study employs Foucault’s theory of body politics and draws on the critical perspective of French feminist theorist Hélène Cixous to reread the abortion narrative of Lil in the second part “A Game of Chess”. By analyzing the patriarchal mechanisms imposed on female bodies, this paper examines how this female figure is positioned under patriarchal power’s gaze. The research indicates that Lil’s bodily trauma is not merely a product of power discipline but also a radical rejection of reproductive obligations. In women’s resistance to patriarchal oppression, their bodies become sites of both suffering and struggle. This analysis expands the dimensions of feminist criticism regarding The Waste Land while offering insights for contemporary gender politics. As the process of civilization continues to objectify female bodies, a critical reflection on biopolitics becomes an essential path out of the spiritual wasteland.
The Waste Land, body politics, feminism
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