Decolonizing Adoption Narratives for Transnational Reproductive Justice

Abstract

In their article "Decolonizing Adoption Narratives for Transnational Reproductive Justice," Sung Hee Yook and Hosu Kim examine narratives emerging from transnational adoption practices, focusing on how birth mothers' narratives-in which a victim-mother makes choices to give a child for adoption in hopes of a better life for the child, and awaits that child's return-develop alongside and deviate from the normative orders of motherhood. While birth mothers' self-transformative narrative illuminates their subjectivities-apart from victimhood, simmering in the latent form of agency-Yook and Kim argue that a compelling narrative of self-mastery produces another discursive trap which renders the numerous less-masterful birth mothers invisible or unworthy of recognition. By attending to the strong affects resonating in birth mothers' writings, we identify "transnational adoptive kinship" as a new sociality, which emerges out of mutual recognition and acknowledgment of adoption losses. In doing so, we envision a new terrain for a transnational reproductive justice framework.