입양의 몸 이야기를 통한 청소년 민주시민 교육: 제인 정 트렌카의『피의 언어』

A Literature-based Democratic Citizenship Education: Adoptee Narratives in Jane Jeong Trenka’s The Language of Blood

There is a growing need for pedagogical exploration in the discourses of complex identity politics in the transnational adoptees with an ongoing discussion of what, how, and why to teach readings of transcultural and translingual frameworks in rapidly globalized societies. By delving into the borderlands of body politics, this paper explores a discourse of adopted bodies with the complex interrelationships of a trans-sphere based on the imaginary matrix of negative stereotyping and hostility. In designing body seminars to draw maps of the relation between power and identity for a better understanding of global democratic citizenship, this paper focuses on Korean American context, and life-based adoptee narratives involved in Jane Jeong Trenka’s Language of Blood, dealing with phobias, traumas, and stereotypes of transnational bodies. The premise of this paper is that context greatly matters in the interpretation of bodies, and that images of nation, people, and race affect body stereotypes of each entity of displaced, diasporic, and adopted bodies. Jane Jeong Trenka’s life narrative exposes the deeply embedded ideas of ethno-nationalism and victimization of subaltern bodies struggling with a state of not belonging and transnational dislocations. The rationale for the pedagogy is to encourage a sense of tolerance for different and presumably stereotyped bodies as being inferior, and to build up socio-ecological perspectives to envision a democratic world with egalitarian thinking and social justice. A search for global democratic citizenship needs to be expanded to the interests and capabilities of students, with potential educational projects, a variety of discussion topics, and cross-cultural outlooks. This pedagogical exploration proposes how to train young people’s minds concerning body politics, and foster critical thinking involved in the identity formation under transnational geography.