Tearing the Seams

A Collaborative Autoethnographic Study of Korean-American Adoption Stories

Bibliographic Data

ID8135694
AuthorsEmily K Suh (0000-0002-1841-2041, Texas State University), Erin Lehman (Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana)
Year2026
Volume10
Issue1
Pages30
Publication date2026-02-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGenealogy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2313-5778 • E-ISSN: 2313-5778
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/genealogy10010030
OpenAlexW7132829068
LanguageEN
References cited26

Language and discourse are central forces shaping representations of self and family creation in adoption narratives. Informed by theorizations of agency, as well as language and legitimacy, two transnational adopted persons engage in a collaborative autoethnography through electronically exchanged letters about the authors’ experiences as international and interracial Korean-American adopted persons. The resulting analysis uncovered how language and identity can intersect in adoption narratives, complicating adopted persons’ stories and their telling of them. The authors also explored the agentive potential of mushfake as hybrid and emerging discourse/Discourse. In narrating their experiences, the authors illuminated how adopted persons and other members of marginalized groups can exercise their agentive authority to take up and demand recognition of self-proclaimed identities which are situated in spaces of in-betweenness and becoming

Autoethnography · Co-construction · Discourse analysis · Discursive psychology · Ethnography · Identity (music · Intersectionality · Narrative · Qualitative research · Situated · Child Welfare and Adoption · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access