Adoptee Aesthetics: A Gendered Discourse

Abstract

The present article seeks to explore how aesthetic discourses by adoptee artists from South Korea can be said to place the adoptee figure at the intersection between race and gender. By looking at how the adopted self uses art as a site in which to negotiate the question of identity formation, I hope to make apparent the constructive relation between adoptee aesthetic discourse, gender, and race. The analysis thus intends to challenge our notions of identity, gender, and self, precisely by looking at how discourse is performed in order to transform and, eventually, engender our selves.