The imprint of another life : adoption narratives and human possibility / Margaret Homans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Homans, Margaret, 1952- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--History and criticism.

American literature.

Families in literature.

Adoption in literature.

Narration (Rhetoric)--Social aspects.

Narration (Rhetoric).

Physical Description:

xi, 300 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : The University of Michigan Press, [2013]

Contents:

Chapter 1 Money and Love 24

Falling-in-Love and the Unseen Economy in Recent Adoption Narratives 24

The Value of a Child: Silas Marner's Gold, the Baby with Golden Curls, and Eppie's Useless Garden 58

Maisie's Profit, Our Profit: The Gold Coin, the Ten-Pound Note, The High Gilt Virgin, and the Medal of So Strange an Alloy 86

Chapter 2 Searches and Origins 112

Creating Origins in Narrative Theory, Trauma Theory, and Adoption Narratives 114

Invented Authenticity and Origins in Recent American Adoption Fiction 126

Return Memoirs and Fictive Origins 150

Chapter 3 Marked Bodies and Identity 178

Is What You Look Like Who You Are? Visible Race, Marked Blood, Family Resemblance, and the Uncertainty of Adopted Identity 187

Marks of Loss: Scars, Scarwords, Love Marks, and Melancholic Identity 215

Chosen Marks 247

Chapter 4 "The Mother Who Isn't One" 250

Silence 250

Birthmother Subjectivity 264

The Birthmother's Plot 275.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780472118885

0472118889

OCLC:

819717664