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Liberal common sense sees the absence of conversations about abortion in schools as the consequence of a taboo that leaves teenage girls uninformed and silenced. From this perspective, the solution is to systematically introduce the subject of abortion in sex education curricula in order to provide information, resources and discussion on the schools' terms. Using post-structuralist theory, I argue that what might be needed instead is a certain ‘side-spreading’, rather than an official understanding, of the subject of abortion in schools. I aim to de-naturalise dominant liberal discourse by making transparent the links between sex education and ‘populational reasoning’, considering powers of production, questioning the position of schools as official holders and spreaders of approved knowledge about sex, and inviting possibilities to ‘de-territorialise’ and ‘re-territorialise’ the subject of abortion in unpredictable ways. This paper is composed of personal reflections, poems and theoretical explorations that challenge the predetermined nature of sex education curricula. Arguments for loosening the subject of abortion through multiple discourses and modes of expression are mirrored by the fragmented, genre-crossing form this paper takes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The essay explores: vision and visuality in Pablo Neruda's poetry; the effects on the texts and their reception of the many visual illustrations which have been published and, briefly, the role of photographic and filmic representations of Neruda in constructing perceptions of him as a writer. The texts reveal that while privileging sight, Neruda reveals himself to have less than perfect vision; the visual images sometimes eclipse the poetry interestingly, and sometimes they make it more clear than it really is. The 'Oda al ojo', from the Nuevas odas elementales is used as a guide to Neruda's possible problem with seeing things straight; contextual, paratextual and metatextual images are referred to in order to suggest that a clearer perspective on one of Neruda's key preoccupations -- witness -- is available from an examination of text-image dynamics than it is from an examination of, or from the production of, the words on the page. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various papers published within this issue including one by Lucasta Miller on sexual passion and the author Charlotte Brontë, one by Paul Edmonson on the influence of William Shakespeare on Anne Brontë's poetry and one by Richard Mullen on the relationship between authors Charlotte Brontë and Thackeray.