Frontispiece: Eero Saarinen's Womb chair as fallout shelter -- Part one: Geographies -- Agoraphobia: Marguerite Duras's Hiroshima mon amour and The vice-consul -- Heterotopia: Alexander Kluge's Yesterday girl and The blind director -- Part two: Boundaries -- Matricide: Uwe Johnson's Anniversaries: from the life of Gesine Cresspahl -- Womb envy: Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, A woman is a woman, and Hail Mary -- End piece: the future is here, and it's dead: Damien Hirst's Virgin mother