An Analysis Of The Otherness In My Year Of Meats-Based On Edward Said's Orientalism

Ruth Ozeki has aroused widespread international attention since the publication of her debut novel My Year of Meats.Ozeki's novels are famous for their superb narrative techniques and they incorporate Ozeki's own experiences and social problems in their works.Her novel,My Year of Meats,was awarded the New York Times book of the year,the Kiriyama Prize and the Imus/Barnes & Noble American Book Award.This thesis bases on Ruth Ozeki's My Year of Meats.Taking Jane-Takagi-Little and Akiko Ueno as two narrative perspectives,the novel depicts one-year experience of two women with different background.In this course,they became good friends and experienced self-growth due to a documentary called My American Wife! The novel is placed in the context of globalization,intertwined with racial,gender,class conflicts.The unique narrative technique,complicated historical background and diversified plot make My Year of Meats have a high research value.Since the publication of Said's Orientalism,Orientalism has been widely concerned by scholars from east and west.Said's theory has strong color of ideology and political criticism.Its critical edge pitted against western cultural hegemony and power politics.In Said's view,“Orientalism” has three meanings: firstly,it is a scientific concept of academic research;secondly,it means Occident and Orient have ontological and epistemological differences in the way of thinking;thirdly,it indicates that the powerful west holds a prejudice against east and regards it as the vulnerable “Other”.The characters in My Year of Meats are reduced to the “Other” in the white supremacy and patriarchy society.Jane-Takagi-Little,Akiko Ueno and the families that films by My American Wife! go through the process of “oppression,awakening and resistance”.With the theoretical support of Orientalism,this thesis will disclose the embodiment of the otherness and how these characters reconstruct their identity.In this way,the author would like to offer some enlightens to change the stereotype of “Other” that the Occident imposes on the Orient.