A Study Of The Diaspora Community In Tropic Of Orange From The Spatial Theory Perspective

Karen Yamashita(1951-)is a famous contemporary Japanese-American writer.The transnational experience and careful observation of ethnic minorities bring her a unique and profound way to understand ethnic minorities who live in a marginal position.Taking Los Angeles and the US-Mexico border as the background,Tropic of Orange presents the complicated urban space of Los Angeles composed of seven ethnic minorities,including African Americans,Chinese Americans,Japanese Americans and Mexican Americans with ways of multiple perspectives,characters,and events.Based on the personal experience of the characters and marked by imagination,the novel combines personal stories with American history in a fragmented narrative that speaks for ethnic minorities.It reveals the predicament and resistance of ethnic minorities in the urban space of Los Angeles,and then builds an open and inclusive diaspora community.Therefore,taking Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange as the research object,this thesis applies to close reading as its foundation,adopts spatial theory of Edward Soja as the main theoretical means and introduces the concept of community of Gerard Delanty.It aims to discusses the predicament,pursuit and construction of the diaspora community of ethnic minorities that include African Americans,Chinese Americans,Japanese Americans and Mexican Americans in material space,imaginary space and the third space.This thesis is divided into six chapters.The first chapter is the introduction,which mainly introduces Karen Yamashita’s life experience and her work Tropic of Orange.The next is the literature review,containing overseas and domestic studies on Karen Tei Yamashita and Tropic of Orange.The second chapter mainly introduces the theoretical framework of this thesis,including spatial theory of Edward Soja and community theory of Gerard Delanty.The third chapter focuses on the material urban space of Los Angeles,and analyzes the predicament of the ethnic minority diaspora community from three aspects: space predicament,spiritual predicament and social predicament,and presents the plight of the marginalized ethnic minorities in a multi-dimensional way.The fourth chapter highlights the imaginary urban space of Los Angeles,analyzing the ethnic minorities’ pursuit of the diaspora community from three aspects: the diaspora community movement composed by Manzanar,the diaspora community border crossed by Arcangel and the diaspora community assistance provided by Buzzworm.The fifth chapter focuses on the real and imaginary third space,and discusses the construction of diaspora community from three aspects: advancing the process of “decolonization”,establishing the connection of “diaspora community” and seeking the path of “space justice”.The chapter sixth summarizes the main contents and viewpoints of this paper and points out the uniqueness of diaspora community from the perspective of spatial and the limitations of this paper.This thesis interprets the diaspora community in Tropic of Orange from the perspective of spatial theory.The characters and events in the novel are connected with each other,transcending the boundaries of race,gender and class,breaking through the shackles of traditional concepts with multiple voices,and exploring the construction of an equal,inclusive and open diaspora community in the third space.The construction of diaspora community in Tropic of Orange highlights the concept of community of shared future and the awareness of globalization with great inclusiveness and openness.