YorkSpace has migrated to a new version of its software. Access our Help Resources to learn how to use the refreshed site. Contact diginit@yorku.ca if you have any questions about the migration.
 

Ephemera: The Searching of an Adopted Daughter

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorDunlop, Rishma
dc.creatorGreenway, Kate Isabel
dc.date.accessioned2016-11-25T13:53:57Z
dc.date.available2016-11-25T13:53:57Z
dc.date.copyright2016-03-21
dc.date.issued2016-11-25
dc.date.updated2016-11-25T13:53:57Z
dc.degree.disciplineEducation
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation utilizes self-study, memoir, and art-making in the context of personal trauma in order to witness and examine the wound that comes from being an adoptee. Using my own experience as a woman, and as part of an adoption triangle, I journey beyond the traditional case study and statistical or psychological analysis where adoption is treated as a singular event, finite and quantifiable. I examine research and theory across disciplines, as well as literary and artistic forms, to situate my own experience of adoption, with the view to unearth dynamics of power, secrecy, repression, conformity and suffering that extend beyond the official adoption process. In particular, I focus on my experience of being an adult adoptee in Ontario who was part of the closed adoption system in existence from post World War Two until the recent opening of records. I use art-making in paper and glass, combining these with the objects and small bits of ephemera I possess to give aesthetic expression to the complexity of adoptive experience. I argue that the absence of adoptive representation can be addressed through social and cultural representation, and advocate for the artistic revisioning of adoption as a particularly powerful medium to give voice to unheard/untold stories through adoption art.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/32651
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectFine arts
dc.subject.keywordsAdoption
dc.subject.keywordsSearch and reunion
dc.subject.keywordsBirthmother
dc.subject.keywordsAdoptive mother
dc.subject.keywordsAdoptee
dc.subject.keywordsGlass art
dc.subject.keywordsAdoption art
dc.subject.keywordsAuto-ethnography
dc.subject.keywordsArts-based practice-led research
dc.subject.keywordsAdoption triangle
dc.subject.keywordsMemoir
dc.subject.keywordsArt-making
dc.subject.keywordsSecrecy in adoption
dc.subject.keywordsSealed records in adoption
dc.subject.keywordsAdoption and culture
dc.titleEphemera: The Searching of an Adopted Daughter
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Greenway_Kate_I_2016_PhD.pdf
Size:
150.08 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.83 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
YorkU_ETDlicense.txt
Size:
3.38 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download

Collections

Education

All items in the YorkSpace institutional repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved except where explicitly noted.