This essay examines two long-form journalistic accounts of the contemporary US foster care system: New York Times reporter Nina Bernstein’s The Lost Children of Wilder (2001), and Life for Me Ain’t Been No Crystal Stair (1993), by The New Yorker’ s Susan Sheehan. Beginning with the divergent responses such accounts of foster care typically generate in readers and reviewers, the essay then explores the popular legacy of Victorian-era depictions of “foundlings,” “lost boys,” and orphan girls. Then, it turns to the rival narrative forms Bernstein and Sheehan use—what I term the Dickensian and modernist modes, respectively—to represent the legal, social, and emotional turmoil surrounding the foster care system. Along with examining the relationships these journalists form with their subjects, and the rival modes of governance the poor must negotiate, the essay also discusses how these writers account for, or discount, the effects of the supposed culture of poverty on foster care.

中文翻译：

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我们阅读的孤儿：寄养的叙事新闻

这篇文章考察了当代美国寄养制度的两个长篇新闻报道：纽约时报记者尼娜·伯恩斯坦 (Nina Bernstein) 的《怀尔德迷失的孩子》(2001 年) 和《新生活对我来说不是没有水晶楼梯》(1993 年)。约克的苏珊希恩。这篇文章首先从读者和评论家对寄养的描述通常产生的不同反应开始，然后探讨维多利亚时代对“弃儿”、“迷路的男孩”和孤女的描述的流行遗产。然后，它转向伯恩斯坦和希恩使用的对立叙事形式——我分别称之为狄更斯和现代主义模式——来代表围绕寄养制度的法律、社会和情感动荡。除了检查这些记者与他们的主题形成的关系，以及穷人必须谈判的对立的治理模式之外，