Origin Narratives: The Stories We Tell Children About Immigration and International Adoption / Edition 1

by Macarena Garcia-Gonzalez

Overview

The first of its kind, this volume unpacks the cultural construction of transnational adoption and migration by examining a sample of recent children's books that address the subject. Of all European countries, Spain is the nation where immigration and transnational adoption have increased most steeply from the early 1990s onward. Origin Narratives: The Stories We Tell Children About Immigration and International Adoption sheds light on the way contemporary Spanish society and its institutions re-define national identity and the framework of cultural, political and ethnic values, by looking at how these ideas are being transmitted to younger generations negotiating a more heterogeneous environment. This study collates representations of diversity, migration, and (colonial) otherness in the texts, as well as their reception by the adult mediators, through reviews, paratexts, and opinions collected from interviews and participant observation. In this new work, author Macarena Garcia Gonzalez argues that many of the texts at the wider societal discourse of multiculturalism, which have been warped into a pedagogical synthesis, underwrite the very racism they seek to combat. Comparing transnational adoption with discourses about immigration works as a new approach to the question of multiculturalism and makes a valuable contribution to an array of disciplines.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415785488
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/23/2017
Series:	Children's Literature and Culture
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Macarena Garcia Gonzales is a lecturer at the University of Zurich in Switzerland

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter One: The Books We Recommend to Children

Chapter Two: Framing the Questions

Chapter Three: I Came by Plane

Chapter Four: They Came from the Desert

Chapter Five: The United Colors of the Rainbow

Chapter Six: Intersected Identities

Chapter Seven: Nation as Family

Conclusions

Works Cited

References