How Transracial Adoptees Use Memoirs to Change Adoption Narratives

Jewell, Anna

Publication

How Transracial Adoptees Use Memoirs to Change Adoption Narratives

Jewell, Anna

An error occurred retrieving the object's statistics

Abstract

Transracial adoptees are a salient population in the United States. Social scientific researchers have looked at communicative barriers and social stigma this group may face when navigating their complex intersectional identity. However, rhetorical scholars have not given this group the same attention. Previous rhetorical research indicates that autobiography can be a beneficial tool to advocate for social justice. Transracial adoptee memoirs provide rich experiential narratives that rhetorical scholars should attend to. To consider how transracial adoptees rhetorically construct identity through memoir authorship and how memoirs can shift problematic conversations about transracial adoption in the United States, this study examines two texts: Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption by Susan Devan Harness and All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung. Utilizing Critical Race Theory, and branch theories Tribal Critical Race Theory and Asian Critical Race Theory, rhetorical analysis of the texts uncovered themes pertinent to how the authors design their texts as counterstories. These counterstories are a stage in which the authors reclaim and nuance their identities, as well as resist harmful narratives and structures surrounding transracial adoption. The texts function to constrain audience members from promulgating essentializing discourses about transracial adoptees with impunity. The findings amplify the importance for transracial adoptee voices to be centered within social and legal spheres to challenge problematic ideologies on family and race and change policy within the United States.