'Too brown to be Swedish, too Swedish to be anything else': mimicry and menace in Swedish transracial adoption narratives

• Published in: Social identities Vol. 27; no. 3; pp. 394 - 409
• Main Author: Wyver, Richey
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 04-05-2021; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Adopted children; Discourses; Global trends; Imitation; Immigrants; Intercountry adoption; International adoption; mimicry; Narratives; Otherness; racism; Resistance; Sweden; Transracial; Transracial adoption
• ISSN: 1350-4630; 1363-0296
• DOI: 10.1080/13504630.2020.1856649

While international adoptions to Sweden have fallen in line with global trends, the presence of the transracial adoptee body remains central to myths of good (white) Swedishness. This article explores the desire for and performance of the international transracial adoptee as a mimic Swede. Analysing published Swedish international transracial adoption narratives, it draws on Bhabha's concept of mimicry to critically deconstruct the idea of a hierarchical and racialized triad of (non-)belonging in discourses of Swedishness: Swede - Adoptee - Immigrant. It reflects on the desired role and purpose of the adoptee as a mimic, and the consequences of rendering the adoptee as a body trapped in a frantic state of non-belonging between almost sameness and almost Otherness, and desired for a visible difference that is unspeakable in a national colour-blind discourse. Discussing the tendency for mimicry to drift into mockery and menace, the article finishes by reflecting on possibility of harnessing the underlying threat of mimicry as a means of resistance to the adoption project.