《血之語言》與《永遠的異鄉人》中跨國收養之再現

Abstract

摘 要

論文主要藉由鄭敬娥的回憶錄《血之語言》與李昌來的小說《永遠的異鄕人》 探討跨國收養的再現，其對主流論述的挑戰以及跨國收養機制中的生命政治如何操控女性身體。在《血之語言》中，鄭敬娥嘗試以不同的文體呈現其經歷。身為被收養人，她透過與原生家庭的重聚找到歸屬感，並逐漸建構自我，了解其生命存在的意義與價值。文本中，鄭敬娥不僅以被收養者的身分書寫生命歷程，更深入刻畫女性身體在跨國收養下的流動。在《永遠的異鄕人》中，被收養人的過去是被刻意忽略且模糊的，僅僅透過主角的描述才隱約露出端倪。文本透過主角自身被收養與收養的雙重身分，探討跨國、跨種族、跨地域的身體流動和被收養人自我意識的轉變。此論文盼能藉由跨國收養的異質呈現來豐富、活化跨國收養的論述。 全文共分成四個部分。第一章主要探究跨國收養的根源，其中包括送養國家與收養國家的歷史文化背景、文獻回顧並探究性別在跨國收養中扮演的角色。第二章分析跨國收養的主流論述如何建構並鞏固這個機制，並探討《血之語言》的書寫對這些主流論述的挑戰。鄭敬娥不僅以其回憶錄質疑主流論述的觀點，更表達她對跨國收養的必要性的懷疑。第三章借用傅柯的生命政治理論分析李昌來的《永遠的異鄕人》中的跨國收養再現。李昌來巧妙的以慰安婦及女性跨國被收養人的遭遇呈現女性身體的流動及如何被操控。金錢的往來與利益的交換往往史的跨國收養不再單純。因此，第四章將綜合本論文的探究分析，主張對社會對跨國收養的重新思考與再教育，包括認識跨國收養的必要性、排除或降低金錢的流動與利益的交換在此機制中的作用，以及嘗試從被收養人的角度看待跨國收養及論述。

ABSTRACT

Both The Language of Blood and A Gesture Life present counternarratives to dominant transnational adoption narratives which mostly emphasize the point that transnational adoption means social benefit for children and it is a practice of humanitarianism, love, generosity, and morality. In The Language of Blood, the adoptee is bitter about being taken away from her birth family. Trenka directly questions the practice of transnational adoption by presenting her lived experience as an example. In A Gesture Life, there is a tension between the narrator’s nonchalance to the practice of transnational adoption and the impact of the experience on the adoptee. Chang-rae Lee does not question transnational adoption by confronting the practice directly. By describing how the practice is taken for granted and normalized, A Gesture Life questions what makes transnational adoption necessary. This thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter focuses on examining of Korean-American adoption, starting from a general review of transnational adoption history between Korean and the U.S. and the cultural background of the practice, and precedes to engage in a study on the gender dynamics within the practice, then to an overview on current researches on transnational adoption narratives, and finally to the social context of The Language of Blood and A Gesture Life. The second part consists of an examination of the dominant discourses of transnational adoption and a close reading of The Language of Blood to analyze the clash between the representations of transnational adoption by the adoptee and that in the dominant narrative, and to reflect on the movement of the female body within the practice of transnational adoption. Chapter three includes a close reading of A Gesture Life and an analysis of the protagonist’s experiences as both an adoptee and an adoptive parent, to study the sense of un-belongingness, adopter-adoptee relation, and the exploitation of women’s bodies in the patriarchal ideology as involved in transnational adoption. Chapter four concludes the thesis with a suggestion that the transnational adoption narrative should be an open one to include more heterogeneous experiences in order to educate people about what is involved and at stake in the practice of transnational adoption and to demand a rethinking on the practice of transnational adoption.