Imagining Adoption: Essays on Literature and Culture

Index

Index Abortion, 7,137,278,288 Adoptee rights activists: and claims about searching, 193-94, 198; dismissed as irrational, 215, 216; international,S; and search movement,S, 6, 8, 193-94, 209. See also Adoption; Identity Adoptees: and absence, 125, 153-55, 159, 161,162,220,224,253; and attachment to adoptive family, after search, 219; curiosity of, 40, 156, 219; docile, 114, 116-17, 124; and double family, 3, 220; as fake children, 194; as fantasy space, 114,115,116,121,123,127,128, 130, 131; as fortunate, 215, 216; and gender, 9, 51-52; as group, 6, 172, 223; ignorance imposed on, 214; and imagination , 9,11,43,57-58,71,125,126, l38-41, 152-54, 157, 159, 160, 161, 162, 17l, 174,253; mature and responsible , 200; as mothers, 167-68,242; mutilated, 121, l30, 215, 226, 243-44; and names, 151, 160-61, 163-65,240, 253,287; and need for community, 46, 47,52,254-56; as oppressed minority, 223; as outsiders, 2, 3, 51-52,113,117, 124-25,126,128-29,152,160,24445 ,252,274-75; pathological, 3,119, 139; as perpetual children, 6, 37,15859 , 163, 214; and reality/fantasy problem , 119, 126; and religion, 46,136, 160,221,242; and self-invention, 160, 163,174, 180,257,262; and selfknowledge , 172-73; and sense of difference , 1, 11,41,172-73,180,181, 185,275; and sexuality, 141-44; silenced , 5, 115; splitting, 118, 120, 159, 164,165,168; violent, 1l3, 223; without rights, 213, 215 Adoptees' Liberty Movement Association, 9,210,218,220 "Adopteestentialism;' 124, 125, 127 Adoptee support groups, 207-27; international ,S; rhetoric of (personal narratives ), 209-26; search framework of, 2l3, 214; structure of, 208 Adoption: as absurd, Ill; and American values, 4,7-8,20,86,207,224,252; and denial of difference, 111, 115, 116, 126, 195,234,280,284; and acculturation , 7-8, 22, 52, 86, 99, 241, 246, 252, 254; ancient Roman, 4,19; as beneficial , 9, 24, 50,84,86-89,146, 156,203, 244-45; changes in twentieth-century American, 4-5, 86, 207, 219, 223-24, 279,288; in children's literature, 100108 ; and choice, 26-27, 30, 84, 89, 90, 92,98,146,196,198,203,239,285, 291,294; as connection, 10,23,29,247; as "contract" murder, 127; crosscultural , 40, 47-50, 52-53, 17l, 181-82, 185,187,251-57,259-60,263,26776 ,277-97; cross-species, 100-107; and deconstruction of naturalized belonging , 284, 294; in dictionary, 98; as disastrous to family, 1,2,18; English and American attitudes toward, compared , 4, 20, 92, l37; and erasing/ rewriting history, 8,10,135,144-45, 194,195,234,258,286-87,294; as fiction /construction, 1, 10-11, 12n. 2, 17-18,98,105,194,199,202; and fostering independence, 100, 102, 107, 159,244,291; in French Revolution, 4; and friendship, 102-5; function of, in literature, 2-3, 7,18,35; and gender, 3, 9-10,22,50-52; ideological power generated by, 135, 137, 143-44; informal (de facto), 4,17-18,61,231-59; and inheritance, 19-31,52,238,239, 240, 241,243,245,246; international, 309 310 Index Adoption (continued) 5,7-8,277,278-79,280,283,286, 290- 97; as irresolvable without remainder , 256-57, 261-63, 271,276; and language, 6; and legal contract, 4, 217,218-20; as metaphor, 7,18,95108 , 242-43, 246,251-52, 258; and mobility, 18,25-26,243,291; and morphing (freedom to merge), 28384 ,285-87,290; as natural, 36, 235, 268; as inferior bond, 85, 92, 97, 195, 232,277; in nineteenth-century England , 4,17-19; open, 5, 226; and plot, 1-2,3,17-19,21,22,24,30,36,40; racial matching in, 281,282,287,288, 289; as recruitment, 25, 135; as repressive /commodifying, 9, 24, 69-70,71, 115,120, 121; and reproductive technology , 277-78; as restrictive and subversive , 231; revitalizing family, 18; ritual aspects of, 139; and sexuality, 10, 28,43; single-parent, 29, 86, 255, 268; sixteenth-century French, 4; statistics on, 7, 269, 279; stigma of, 5, 20, 37,9293 , 119, 122, 173; and structure over content, 145; as term, in fund-raising, 97; as transitory, 97,217; transracial, 5, 8,9,101,105,171,181-82,188-89, 256-57,260,261,262,263,264,26776 ,277-97; as trauma/loss, 5, 41, 11819 , 127...