Del i serien Critical Studies in Gender, Sexuality, and Culture

Birth Mothers and Transnational Adoption Practice in South Korea

Virtual Mothering

Häftad, Engelska, 2018

429 kr

Beställningsvara. Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar. Fri frakt för medlemmar vid köp för minst 249 kr.

This book illuminates the hidden history of South Korean birth mothers involved in the 60-year-long practice of transnational adoption. The author presents a performance-based ethnography of maternity homes, a television search show, an internet forum, and an oral history collection to develop the concept of virtual mothering, a theoretical framework in which the birth mothers' experiences of separating from, and then reconnecting with, the child, as well as their painful,ambivalent narratives of adoption losses, are rendered, felt and registered. In this, the author refuses a universal notion of motherhood. Her critique of transnational adoption and its relentless effects on birth mothers’ lives points to the everyday, normalized, gendered violence against working-class, poor, single mothers in South Korea’s modern nation-state development and illuminates the biopolitical functions of transnational adoption in managing an "excess" population. Simultaneously, her creative analysis reveals a counter-public, and counter-history, proposing the collective grievances of birth mothers.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2018-12-08
Mått148 x 210 x 15 mm
Vikt341 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieCritical Studies in Gender, Sexuality, and Culture
Antal sidor245
Upplaga18001
FörlagPalgrave Macmillan
ISBN9781349711512

Tillhör följande kategorier

PART I: UNBECOMING MOTHERS: HISTORY OF GENDERED VIOLENCE.- 1. Secure the Nation; Secure the Family.- 2. Maternity Homes and the Birthplace of the Virtual Mother.- PART II: RECONNECTION: VIRTUAL MOTHERING.- 3. Television Mothers: Birth Mothers Lost and Found in the Search-and-Reunion Narrative.- 4. Performing Virtual Mothers and Forging Virtual Kinship .- 5. “I am a Mother but not a Mother”: The Paradox of Virtual Mothering.

“Hosu Kim’s Birth Mothers and Transnational Adoption Practice in South Korea: Virtual Mothering, is an approachable book that manages to account for a significant historical breadth while also being succinct and clear. Any moments of repetition or circular writing are in fact helpful to readers as they navigate across time periods, genres, and media. Kim’s book is a memorable and necessary intervention in critical adoption studies.” (Jenny Heijun Wills, Adoption & Culture, Vol. 7 (2), 2019)