About paternal voices in adoption narratives

Abstract

In his article "About Paternal Voices in Adoption Narratives" Fu-jen Chen examines the emerging voices of fathers in adoption discourse. Breaking the reticence and challenging the stereotypical profile of birth fathers and the father overall, birth fathers in narratives resort to essentialism or victimhood, a cultural imagination in adoption discourse. Further, Chen examines adoption narratives by adoptive fathers arguing that their reluctance to call for a father-to-father relationship - either rivalry or alliance - indicates a sign of disavowal of both subjective splitness and the structural deadlock. Chen argues that in paternal adoption narratives writing does not emerge as a political subject. Using the example of protagonist of Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture Life Chen demonstrates a potential to develop into an ethical subject in Lacanian terms. © Purdue University.