The Metaphor of an Adopted Body

ISBN-13: 9783639146721 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 404 str.

Catherine Lynch

Opis

Writers of PhDs have a unique, personal and in-depthrelationship with their subject matter, which develops over anumber of years. What happens when life intrudes so much into thereading and writing that it takes over the subject matter, sothat the original struggle for objective scholarship threatens tobecome subsumed in emotion and self-discovery? The supervisor can doworse than guide their student towards the genre of life writing,within which a flourishing of sub-genres may be accommodating to such a journey. For an Australian closed-records adopteecaught up in the reunion processes sparked by the 1990 changes to theAdoption Act, critical readings of Peter Carey, Janette TurnerHospital and Luke Davies developed into the invention of the AdoptedBody, the Subject Adoptee and a new way of seeing: ado/aptivereading and writing. Perhaps in the field of ado/aptive theory,the stolen generations, inter-country adoptees and the whiteclosed-record adoptees of Australia can re-invent themselves,develop their identities and create a genre of academic theoryunique to Australia.

O autorze

Catherine Lynch's research focuses on the history of Australia's
closed records
adoption system, its links with the Stolen Generations and its
representations in
contemporary Australian Literature. She has also taught issues in
mass communication
at, and holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Australian Literature
from, the University of
Sydney.