Spatiality And Homeland Consciousness In Karen Tei Yamashita's Novels

Karen Tei Yamashita(1951-)is an outstanding representative of the contemporary Japanese American writers.She is well-known for her adoption of magic realism and post-modernist writing techniques.With her publication of many novels,short stories,dramas,essays,memoirs and other writing forms,Yamashita enriches the contemporary Japanese American literature.As a “Sansei” Japanese American writer,Yamashita inherits and promotes the literary thoughts and narrative techniques of the “Issei” and “Nisei” writers and many other ethnic American writers.Her works combine the forms of fiction and non-fiction,literature and history,employing multiple points of view and reflecting the living conditions of ethnic groups or even the whole human race.It has been less than thirty years since the publication of Yamashita's first novel and the Chinese readers are relatively unfamiliar with her.However,many scholars abroad have begun to interpret Yamashita's novels from the perspectives of narrative skills,ecological thoughts,ethnic identity,globalization,etc.With the recent development of spatial theory and ethnic literature,the spatiality in Yamashita's novels together with the homeland consciousness of Yamashita as an ethnic writer gradually receive more and more public attention.Therefore,this dissertation is aimed to study how Yamashita expresses her view on the loss,pursuit,and reconstruction of homeland in different spatial dimensions from the perspectives of spatial theory and homeland consciousness in order to further display the unique charm in Yamashita's novels.This dissertation mainly deals with three of Karen Tei Yamashita's novels,namely,Through the Arc of the Rain Forest(1990),Brazil-Maru(1992),and Tropic of Orange(1997).It also takes into account Yamashita's publication of some other novels,dramas,essays and memoirs as well as her biography,interviews and academic works.Meanwhile,the study adopts the spatial theories of Henri Lefebvre,Michel Foucault and Edward Soja,Mike Crang's cultural geography,Homi Bhabha's cultural hybridity,eco-criticism and other relevant literary thoughts.With the combination of theories and texts,this study attempts to deeply explore the spatiality and homeland consciousness in Karen Tei Yamashita's novels.This dissertation is divided into five parts.The introduction first gives a general survey of the development of Japanese American literature;then it moves to the literature review of the research background of Karen Tei Yamashita's works at home and abroad,pointing out that the academic study of Japanese American literature and Karen Tei Yamashita's works has not received enough attention in China and there is still much possibility for development.Later it introduces the theoretical framework,research contents,methodology and the significance of this study,considering spatiality and homeland consciousness the keynotes for the understanding of Karen Tei Yamashita's novels.Chapter One is a case study of Karen Tei Yamashita's first novel Through the Arc of the Rain Forest.It mainly deals with “the loss of homeland” in the physical space of Matac?o and the dimensions of social space,body space and spiritual space for the characters of Kazumasa Ishimaru,Mane Da Costa Pena and J.B.Tweep.This chapter argues that Through the Arc of the Rain Forest exposes many underlying causes for the loss of geographical homeland.The novel not only contains sympathy for the homelessness of the immigrant diaspora in different spatial dimensions,but also criticizes the industrial civilization that led to human being's dilemma of survival.Yamashita takes this novel as a lesson,warning human beings not to be misguided during the process of homeland construction and finally become homeless.She also encourages human beings to find out a way to rebuild their homelands in the waste land of post-modern society.Chapter Two mainly investigates the Japanese-Brazilians' progress of pursuing their homes on the foreign land depicted in Yamashita's second novel Brazil-Maru.It is concerned about the spiritual space of the journey on the ship and the community of Esperanca as well as the pursuit of homeland in different dimensions for the characters of Ichiro Terada,Kantaro Uno,etc.In this chapter,the author also refers to the definition of homeland in Mike Crang's Cultural Geography,assuming that the pursuit of homeland does not necessarily mean the seeking of roots.Instead,a new homeland can be built in different physical spaces on the basis of one's personal experiences.As for those ethnic groups who have lost homelands in their native countries,the pursuit of spiritual homeland in other countries actually accounts for an ideal goal for their efforts.The study also holds that Yamashita in Brazil-Maru describes the characters' pursuit of Rousseau's spiritual homeland,a hybridity homeland of the third-space and a heterogeneous homeland in the new space.These pursuits may not always succeed,yet,confronted with the loss of homeland,Yamashita looks forwards to people's pursuit of new homelands in a new world and new environment.Chapter Three focuses on the reconstruction of homeland in Karen Tei Yamashita's third novel Tropic of Orange.Through an analysis of the homeland reconstruction of the seven principal characters Rafaela Cortes,Bobby Ngu,Gabriel,Arcangel,Emi,Buzzworm and Manzanar Murakami,this chapter explores how Yamashita reconstructs her ideal homeland in the dimensions of border space,city space,cyberspace,spiritual space and cultural space.The study points out that Tropic of Orange,as the third novel of the writer,possesses a stronger sense of spatiality and homeland consciousness than the previous two novels of Through the Arc of the Rain Forest and Brazil-Maru.Beginning with the narrative structure,the novel leaves the readers a deep impression of spatiality and homeland consciousness.Through her writing of space and homeland in Tropic of Orange,Yamashita displays her intention to build a homeland of mobility,of multi-cultural background,and of spatial justice.Based on the analysis above,the study comes to a conclusion that spatiality and homeland consciousness are of pivotal importance to Karen Tei Yamashita's novels.From “the loss of homeland” in Through the Arc of the Rain Forest to “the pursuit of homeland” in Brazil-Maru and “the construction of homeland” in Tropic of Orange,Yamashita never discards her contemplation over space and homeland.We can also conclude that with the passage of time,the spatiality and homeland consciousness in Yamashita's works become more and more clear;from the narrative structure to the themes and characterization,Yamashita's novels share the characteristics of ethnic literature and possess the distinctive features of their own.They are not only related to the motif of cultural identity for ethnic literature,but also deal with the important themes of social phenomena,natural environment and spiritual dilemma for the whole human race.Yamashita's works echo the process of globalization and the borderlessness of literature research.As for the influence,Yamashita's works have transcended over a single ethnic group and will become a fundamental voice for post-modern American literature.