Adoption as Liminal Space: Representations of Adoption in Children's Picturebooks
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| Title: | Adoption as Liminal Space: Representations of Adoption in Children's Picturebooks |
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| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Amy Burke, Melody Zoch |
| Source: | Journal of Children's Literature. 2023 49(2):42-55. |
| Availability: | Children's Literature Assembly. e-mail: info@childrensliteratureassembly.org; Web site: https://www.childrensliteratureassembly.org/journal.html |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 14 |
| Publication Date: | 2023 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: | Disproportionate Representation, Picture Books, Adoption, Trauma Informed Approach, Ideology, Culturally Relevant Education, Child Development, Family Relationship, Social Environment, Cognitive Processes, Critical Literacy |
| ISSN: | 1521-7779 |
| Abstract: | In this article, the authors analyze four picturebooks about adoption that highlight these experiences of liminality. Children who have been adopted may feel torn between two families and cultures. Children who are adopted must make sense of their lives and identities, residing in a state of in-between-ness. Adoption presents a time of displacement and a crossing over into something new. Critical adoption studies shifts the focus from the family formed through adoption to acknowledging the possible hardship and inequitable conditions the birthparents may experience through a trauma-informed approach. At the heart of critical adoption studies is an interrogation of the ways in which matters such as reproductive justice, choice, poverty, race, capitalism, white supremacy, and colonialism all intersect to construct the complexity of adoption in which some are privileged and others marginalized. Another way critical adoption studies highlights injustice is by considering how adoption is operationalized to privilege white, heterosexual, cisgender couples who are often American and financially secure. One aspect of critical adoption studies that is especially important to consider in our study relates to the notion of kinship. The notion of kinship as a normative model of family is disrupted as an adopted child is introduced to a family, particularly when the adopted child is a different race than the adoptive parents, and thus subject to racism that the adoptive parents will not experience in the same way. At the same time, as the notion of kinship and biological belonging is disrupted, the "ideal family" is upheld, and notions of what this entails are reproduced (e.g., middle-class, Western ideals). |
| Abstractor: | ERIC |
| Entry Date: | 2024 |
| Access URL: | https://www.childrensliteratureassembly.org/journal.html |
| Accession Number: | EJ1419500 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | In this article, the authors analyze four picturebooks about adoption that highlight these experiences of liminality. Children who have been adopted may feel torn between two families and cultures. Children who are adopted must make sense of their lives and identities, residing in a state of in-between-ness. Adoption presents a time of displacement and a crossing over into something new. Critical adoption studies shifts the focus from the family formed through adoption to acknowledging the possible hardship and inequitable conditions the birthparents may experience through a trauma-informed approach. At the heart of critical adoption studies is an interrogation of the ways in which matters such as reproductive justice, choice, poverty, race, capitalism, white supremacy, and colonialism all intersect to construct the complexity of adoption in which some are privileged and others marginalized. Another way critical adoption studies highlights injustice is by considering how adoption is operationalized to privilege white, heterosexual, cisgender couples who are often American and financially secure. One aspect of critical adoption studies that is especially important to consider in our study relates to the notion of kinship. The notion of kinship as a normative model of family is disrupted as an adopted child is introduced to a family, particularly when the adopted child is a different race than the adoptive parents, and thus subject to racism that the adoptive parents will not experience in the same way. At the same time, as the notion of kinship and biological belonging is disrupted, the "ideal family" is upheld, and notions of what this entails are reproduced (e.g., middle-class, Western ideals). |
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| ISSN: | 1521-7779 |
