Adoption Reckonings - by Gonda Van Steen (Paperback)

About the Book

This book presents a new theater play, titled For Three Refrigerators and a Washing Machine, along with a thorough introduction that provides historical context and theoretical framing of the "historic" child adoptions from postwar Greece.

Book Synopsis

This book presents a new theater play, For Three Refrigerators and a Washing Machine, along with a thorough introduction that provides historical context and theoretical framing. The play with the enigmatic title tells the poignant and forgotten stories of international child adoptions from Greece in the 1950s and the 1960s. It offers an in-depth exploration of the first postwar mass international adoption movement, unveiling the emotional and even existential challenges faced by those involved. Based on an authentic playscript, the book creates awareness about what has not been said, should be said, but still cannot be said about the losses involved in the permanent uprooting of children and teenagers. It tackles the primal questions of "Where do I come from?" and "What happened to the child I relinquished for adoption abroad?" And why did nobody foresee that adopted children become adopted adults who ask critical questions about origins, procedures, and aftercare?
Thus, the book boldly reflects on the complexities and profound losses associated with displacing children and perpetuating taboos. Also, it reveals multiple connections to similar adoption movements worldwide, which include countries (and histories) of origin such as Ireland, South Korea, Vietnam, and several states in Central and South America. This thought-provoking book poses critical questions about identity and belonging that far exceed the Greek setting and continue to be relevant today.

Review Quotes

"As a scholar and practitioner of drama and theater, I welcome a playscript that is so deeply concerned with modern-day issues of identity and belonging. The playscript takes us back to Greece of the 1950s and to the sense of loss that comes with child adoptions abroad. But it also hits home for being poignantly current and for acknowledging the mental and physical toll that the "historic" adoptions took on young children, unsupported birth mothers, small village communities, and ultimately on an entire country that is still contending with its post-Civil War past." --Maria Frangi, University of Patras, Greece.

"What a rare and unique achievement that groundbreaking, scholarly research comes alive via the creative process in the form of a stage play. Professor Gonda Van Steen has successfully done just that. In Adoption Reckonings, she explains the transformation of her book to the stage through the emotional testimonies of those directly involved in the postwar adoption of Greek children, the first such mass exportation of children in history." --Dr. Mary Cardaras, Founder and Director, The Demos Center of The American College of Greece, Adoptee and Activist for Adoptee Rights.

About the Author

Gonda Van Steen holds the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature in the Department of Classics at King's College London, where she also directs the Centre for Hellenic Studies. She is the author of many articles and six books. The book most pertinent to this recent writing and performance project is Adoption, Memory, and Cold War Greece (2019). Van Steen is a co-leader of the campaign called Nostos for Greek Adoptees.