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Table of contents

  1. Front Matter
    Pages i-xiii
    PDF
  2. Introduction: From Invisible Mothers to Virtual Mothering
    Hosu Kim
    Pages 1-31

  3. Unbecoming Mothers: A History of Gendered Violence

    1. Front Matter
      Pages 33-33
      PDF
    2. Secure the Nation, Secure the Family
      Hosu Kim
      Pages 35-77
    3. Maternity Homes, the Birthplace of the Virtual Mother
      Hosu Kim
      Pages 79-111

  4. Reconnection: Virtual Mothering

    1. Front Matter
      Pages 113-113
      PDF
    2. Television Mothers: Birth Mothers Lost and Found in the Search-and-Reunion Narrative
      Hosu Kim
      Pages 115-143
    3. Performing Virtual Mothering and Forging Virtual Kinship
      Hosu Kim
      Pages 145-187
    4. “I Am a Mother, but Not a Mother”: The Paradox of Virtual Mothering
      Hosu Kim
      Pages 189-224
  5. Back Matter
    Pages 225-245
    PDF

About this book

Introduction

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.
                               

Keywords

single mothers adoption kinship population policy maternity homes oral history biopolitics

Authors and affiliations

  1. 1.City University of New York College of Staten IslandStaten IslandUSA

About the authors

Hosu Kim is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, with an affiliation in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York, USA.


Bibliographic information

  • Book Title Birth Mothers and Transnational Adoption Practice in South Korea
  • Book Subtitle Virtual Mothering
  • Authors Hosu Kim
  • Series Title Critical Studies in Gender, Sexuality, and Culture
  • Series Abbreviated Title Critical Studies in Gender, Sexuality, and Culture
  • DOI https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53852-9
  • Copyright Information The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
  • Publisher Name Palgrave Macmillan, New York
  • eBook Packages Social Sciences Social Sciences (R0)
  • Hardcover ISBN 978-1-137-53851-2
  • Softcover ISBN 978-1-349-71151-2
  • eBook ISBN 978-1-137-53852-9
  • Edition Number 1
  • Number of Pages XIII, 245
  • Number of Illustrations 0 b/w illustrations, 2 illustrations in colour
  • Topics Ethnography
  • Buy this book on publisher's site

Reviews

“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)