South Dakota State University
Composing a Literary Adoption Memoir and Self Through Creative Nonfiction Memoir Writing
Abstract
dc:description.abstract<p>Adoption writings span across various forms, such as fiction, non-fiction, essays, poetry, theatre, and scholarly fields of study. While many of these adoption writings speak to the complexities of adoption, the general public still tends to see adoption “such a beautiful thing” to do—as the best plan for the child, a noble act, a selfless decision, and a solution to a long-standing social issue. This thesis explores the “literary adoption memoir”—artful writings about real life happenings; my contribution to this genre addresses the complexities of the closed adoption era, transnational/transracial adoption, and parenting an adoptee as an adult adoptee. For this project, I share my process and the theories that validate and inform my felt experiences as an adoptee and as an adoptive mom. I use the literary tools in the creative nonfiction genre to write not a mere record of events of my adoption, of adopting our daughter, of searching for my birth family. I offer pieces of creative nonfiction that represent my desire for a final project: a literary adoption memoir—a memoir of real life that borrows from the literary world, and a memoir that speaks to the complications in adoption—to loss, abandonment, belonging, identity, and rejection.</p>
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- Master of Arts (MA)
- Level thesis:degree_level
- Thesis - Open Access
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- English
- Year dc:date.available
- 2015
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Nagy, Jamie K.
- Contributors dc:contributor
-
- Christine Stewart
Subjects
dc:subject × 4Rights
dc:rights- Language dc:language
- English
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Repository record dc:identifier
- https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd/2
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:openprairie.sdstate.edu:etd-1002