The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child, 1993
Seeds from a Silent Tree: An Anthology By Korean Adoptees, 1997
The Unforgotten War: Dust of the Streets, 1998
Voices from Another Place: A Collection of Works from a Generation Born in Korea and Adopted to Other Countries, 1999
After the Morning Calm, 2002
Single Square Picture, 2003
Twins Found in a Box, 2003
Language of Blood, 2006
Outsiders Within, 2006
Once They Hear My Name, 2008
Fugitive Visions, 2009
I'm buying "Primal Wound" to dig into the dominant discourse and yeah, you know. yadadadad.
I just remembered that Jae Ran posted some great info a while back:
There are a bunch of scholarly work out or soon to be published by Korean adoptees, Tobias Hubinette, Jini Roby, Kathleen Bergquist, Kim Park Nelson are a few that come to mind. ...I forgot some poetry that have Korean adoption as a central figure. Sun Yung Shin's Skirt Full of Black, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs Paper Pavillion and Lee Herrick's This Many Miles From Desire are three that come to mind.I had recently found out about Hubinette too. Discovering all these people and associating names with their work was really cool. I'm going back to Outsiders Within and looking at it, and I'm like "damn, this is stacked". Mei-ling Hopgood, who wrote "Lucky Girl", mentions she has an adopted Korean brother, who I'm guessing wrote a piece in After The Morning Calm (p. 109-112). I find these connections to be very cool.
About Jeannine Vance's "Twins Found in a Box"...I read the first 200 pages but due to midterm week the last 80 didn't take top priority. So far, I have mixed feelings about this book. I like it, I think the religious aspect is interesting and refreshing (from what I recall none of the other adoptee stuff is even remotely religious, correct me on that though), but I can only help but think that the book itself is only indirectly related to adoption. She writes that the time accounted in the book took place during her adjustment period, a coming of age kind of thing, though not a lot deals specifically with adoption-related thoughts. I guess what I'm saying is that...can we really assign causality to everything she says? Is all her family problems directly due to her being adopted? Actually when I think about her mom, the argument is strong, since it turned out that Mike was actually adopted too, but this complex problem I can't really sort out. But yeah, I still have 80 pages to read.
I'll definitely buy those poetry books, those should be interesting. I've been into poetry, not because I didn't like it though.
I can't believe I forgot about Ten Thousand Sorrows by Elizabeth Kim. It was very controversial and many adoptees (and non-adoptees alike) thought she made up a lot of things. For sure there are some problems with some facts but I'm not sure where the blame for those should be assigned. In the book she recollects some memories from being in Korea prior to her adoption but the words she give to describe things (such as honor killing) isnt actually typically common. Anyway, I digress.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I thought of it now was because she talks a lot about religion.
Another person who is adopted and writes about religion (if that's something you're interested in ) is an adoptee that used to be a Benedictine monk, Brother James. I'll see if I can find a link.
Sorry if this comes across as self-congratulatory but I wrote a chapter in an anthology called Religion and Spirituality in Korean America about adoptees and religion. Shoot me an email and I'll send you a copy of the chapter.