ABSTRACT

This paper provides a critical analysis of the narratives of Bolivian adoptees in Belgium. We discuss how the adoptees look back upon the imagery of family and culture invoked by their parents and wider social environment and how this imagery has affected their sense of self and belonging. We argue that the adoptees’ narratives testify of a discursive struggle to reclaim control over their lives and histories. While they draw upon prevailing discourses that tend to imagine adoptees as ‘wounded’, they do so in diverse, complex and at times contradictory ways. Their perceptions of the familial and cultural imagery show that while they do not entirely reject the idea of being hurt, they seem to make a shift from explaining this ‘wound’ in individual-psychological terms to explaining it in social terms, making use of emerging anti-racist and decolonial perspectives.

摘要

本文对比利时玻利维亚被收养者的叙述进行了批判性分析。我们讨论了被收养者如何回顾他们的父母和更广泛的社会环境所唤起的家庭和文化意象，以及这种意象如何影响他们的自我和归属感。我们认为，被收养者的叙述证明了一场话语斗争，以重新控制他们的生活和历史。虽然他们利用了倾向于将被收养者想象为“受伤”的流行话语，但他们以多样化、复杂且有时相互矛盾的方式这样做。他们对家庭和文化意象的看法表明，虽然他们并不完全拒绝受到伤害的想法，但他们似乎正在从用个人心理术语解释这种“创伤”转变为用社会术语来解释，