Virtual mothering: A cultural critique of the emergent figure of Korean birthmothers in popular media.
Item
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Title
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Virtual mothering: A cultural critique of the emergent figure of Korean birthmothers in popular media.
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Identifier
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AAI3288978
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identifier
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3288978
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Creator
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Kim, Hosu.
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Contributor
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Includes supplementary digital materials | Adviser: Patricia T. Clough
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Date
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2007
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Individual and Family Studies | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
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Abstract
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Transnational Adoption is becoming an important form of global family formation in the U.S. and European societies. It creates relationships between sending and adoptive parties that cross national, racial, and cultural boundaries. While there is global recognition of this practice, little attention has been given to the sending parties, i.e., birthparents and the sending countries. Noting a long history of South Korea's involvement in the practice of transnational adoption as a key sending country, my dissertation examines the recent social phenomenon of the emergence of Korean birthmothers in Korean popular media, specifically television and the Internet. Central to my dissertation is an analysis of the intricate processes through which the figure of the birthmother is mediated and performed as a mother, which I call virtual mothering. Virtual mothering, which I am employing as an analytical as well as a methodological framework, illuminates the discursive and affective domain in which Korean birthmothers' motherhood is rendered intelligible. This analysis offers a critical understanding of Korea's adoption discourse with the further aim of facilitating mourning for the losses involved in this fifty-year-long practice of transnational adoption.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
