Multiethnic Literatures in the U.S.

Karen Tei Yamashita

Date of Birth: January 8, 1951 (Oakland, California) (57 years of age)
Education: Carleton College in (Minnesota)
Graduated Phi Beta Kappa with degrees in English and Japanese Literature
Yamashita spent her junior year I college as an exchange student at Waseda University in Tokyo.
Occupation: Japanese American writer, Associate Professor of Literature at University of California, Santa Cruz. Karen Tei Yamashita teaches creative writing and Asian American Literature.
Books: Circle K Cycles (2001), Tropic of Orange (1997, Brazil-Maru (1992), and Through the Arc of the Rainforest (1990)
Karen Tei Yamashita is a Japanese American writer as well as a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Yamashita grew up in Los Angeles California before attending Carleton College in Minnesota. She also spent a year in Japan as an exchange student as a junior. In 1975 Yamashita moved to Brazil where she lived for nine years in Sao Paolo. In Brazil she was able to study Japanese immigration to Brazil. Also, in Brazil she met her current husband Ronaldo Lopes de Oliveira (Architect). In 1984 the family, Karen, Ronaldo, and her two children Jon and Jane moved back to California. They currently live in Santa Cruz, California.
In California Yamashita continued to write short stories and plays. Her first book was published in 1990, Through the Arc of the Rainforest by the Coffee House Press. She received awards for the book, the American Book Award and the Janet Hedinger Kafka Award. Later in 1992, Yamashita’s second book was published, Brazil Maru, followed by Tropic of Orange (1997), and Circle K Cycles (2001).
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Tei_Yamashita http://faculty.washington.edu/kendo/yamashita.html http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/yamashita_karen_tei.html

Karen Tei Yamashita – Bibliography

Kusei: An Endangered Species. Yamashita, Karen Tei, and Karen Mayeda. 1986.
Yamashita, Karen Tei. Brazil-Maru. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 1993.
Yamashita, Karen Tei. Circle K Cycles. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2001
Yamashita, Karen Tei. O-Men: An American Kabuki. 1978
Yamashita, Karen Tei. “The Dentist and the Dental Hygenist.” Hermes. 55 (1995)

Yamashita, Karen Tei. “The Orange.” Chicago Review. 39.3.4 (1993)

Yamashita, Karen Tei. Through the Arc of the Rainforest. Minneapolis: Coffee House
Press, 1990.
Yamashita, Karen Tei. Tropic of Orange. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 1993.

Karen Tei Yamashita Annotated Bibliography

Campbell, John R.B. 1991. Through the arc of the rain forest (book review). The New York Times Book Review. 16.
In the article referenced above, Mr. Campbell reviews Yamashita’s first book- Through the Arc of the Rain Forest. He speaks positively about the book for the most part saying Yamashita “captures… the complexity of Brazilian culture.” He also comments on her ability to show readers the terrible truth of reality in a poetic fashion.

Chuh, Kandice. Of Hemispheres and Other Spheres: Navigating Karen Tei Yamashita’s Literary World. American Literary History. 18.3: 618-37.
Chuh discusses how Yamashita’s novels have impacted Asian-American and hemispheric studies through her writings on Brazil and a national identity. She analyzes how Yamashita’s works challenge us to look at what drives people and how their desires affect individuals as well as the community around them.

Kaye, Janet. 1998. Tropic of orange (book review). The New York Times Book Review. 103 (1):16.
This article is a book review of Tropic of Orange and it appears in The New York Times Book Review, published weekly. The author gives credit to Karen Tei Yamashita for being witty and giving us a plot that allows us to see that some individuals (in this case Emi & Gabriel) can be so consumed in their own lives, they don’t notice the destruction of the world around them. The critical part of the article comes when she writes that the book becomes disappointing toward the end with a little too much formal controversy.

Lee, Sue-Im. 2007. “We Are Not the World”: Global Village, Universalism, and Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange(Critical Essay). MFS Modern Fiction Studies. 53.3: 501-527.
Lee examines how the book looks at the globalist “we” and how it affects universalism. In Tropic of Orange, Yamashita strips people of their “material inequalities” so they will see how similar all people really are. Lee also discusses the representation of a global village in Tropic that is based on logic of consumers, meaning that because people can taste another culture’s food or see it’s people, they have experienced another culture.

Mallot, J. Edward. 2004.”Signs taken for wonders, wonders taken for dollar signs: Karen Tei Yamashita and the commodification of miracle.” ARIEL 35.3-4: 115(23). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. CIC University of Illinois Chicago. 17 Feb. 2008.
The basic style of Mallot’s piece is quoting a passage from Yamashita’s books and describing what is represents in the real world. He discusses Yamashita’s representation of Brazil, economic situations, money, commodities and even men. He concludes that people will try to exploit miracles because consumers will insist on having them.

Rauch, Molly E. 1998. “Tropic of Orange.” The Nation 266. n7. 28(3). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. CIC University of Illinois Chicago. 17 Feb. 2008
Throughout the article, Rauch discusses oranges, from the one on Gabriel’s ranch to the shipment of spiked oranges from Brazil that lead to the freeway destruction. She refers to the book as a collage in which Yamashita has given us seven days and thrown the lives of seven people on a path to entanglement with metaphors operating untamed.

Rody, Caroline. 2000. Impossible voices: ethnic postmodern narration in Toni Morrison’s Jazz and Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rain Forest. Contemporary Literature. 41.4: 618-41.
This article looks at the post modern use of narrative voices in Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rain Forest and Morrison’s Jazz. They give us new perspective on narrators, abandoning the know-it-all that is much too common. Instead, they use a mystery person who seems to know just enough.

Shan, Te-hsing. 2006. Interview with Karen Tei Yamashita. Amerasia Journal. 32:3: p123-142.
This is an interview with Karen Tei Yamashita, in which she talks about her family as well as her heritage.

Passage:

Maybe I’ll be more like Alicia Leal, the astronaut. Like her, I believe in something that I think my dying, denying, backward-looking people need. I don’t have all of it yet. I don’t know how to pass on what I do have. I’ve got to learn to do that. It scares me how many things I’ve got to learn… Everyone knows that change is inevitable. From the second law of thermodynamics to Darwinian evolution, from Buddhism’s insistence that nothing is permanent… But I don’t believe we’re dealing with all that that means. We haven’t even begun to deal with it. (25-26)

The first question that came into my mind when I was reading this passage was is Lauren a prophet? When she talks about helping her people and getting a message across to them I instantly think about a messenger from God. Especially when she talks about something she is desperately trying to “pass on”. I got the feeling that Lauren is dying to become a leader and to help the suffering people around her. With her concept of a different God and a new type of religion this concept is not that farfetched.

Later on in the passage she becomes more pessimistic and doesn’t even know how she’s going to accomplish helping the world. In fact Lauren mentions that she doesn’t even know what she is talking about. She becomes confused and questions whether any of this chaos is real. It’s like even though she wants to do all these great things, she still doesn’t forget that she is just one human being. Then she talks about her message of change.

The end of the passage talks about this change and society’s attitude towards change. Lauren doesn’t seem to understand the reason for denying change or worse knowing that it’s inevitable yet, still reluctant to actually go with the change. She questions the world around her and wonders why the people don’t see her God that represents change, when it is so obvious.

The end of this passage also got me to think about “Tropic of Orange” and how the author tries to stress that we can not keep living secluded tucked away lives and ignore what’s happening all around us and the people around us. Both the author of Tropic of Orange and Lauren try to understand and question how people can live such “normal lives” when there is so much more going on in the world. How people can deny change.

            Binaries are prevalent throughout the novel, Tropic of Orange by Karen Yamashita. One of the most interesting binaries is set up within the character Manzanar. Yamashita uses this character to illustrate the binary of the wealthy white collar worker and the poor homeless. Manzanar’s character conveys the idea of the wealthy white collar worker who is very detached from society and on the opposite side, this character represents the shift in coming to a class consciousness when he becomes homeless and is a member if the lower class.

            Early in the novel, Yamashita lets the reader know of Manzanar’s past as a skilled surgeon. Knowing this past life aids in understanding the argument Yamashita makes about members of the wealthy, white collar class having no idea about what is really happening in society. On this topic, Yamashita writes, “… and perhaps they thought themselves disconnected from a sooty homeless man on an overpass” (35). While this “sooty man” is Manzanar, when he was a surgeon, it seems that he was just going through the motions of living. Even though he had a good family, a respectable job, and has saved lives, there was something missing. Yamashita alludes to this disconnection from the core of society as the problem. Manzanar was holding people’s lives in his very hands, yet he was not connected with them.

            Later in the novel, the reader is again given a closer look at Manzanar’s life story. This point serves as the shift in Manzanar; he makes the switch that will ultimately change his life and his thinking. Yamashita writes, “One day, he left a resident to sew up a patient, removed his mask, gloves, and gown” (56). This particular sentence serves to metaphorically illustrate the change that Manzanar has made. He physically removed the very things that have been keeping him protected against letting things in. He rids himself of the barriers to the outside world. This change symbolizes Manzanar coming to a consciousness about the world. After this, when his baton replaces his knife, he goes by “Manzanar” which is the name for the concentration camp that he was raised in. This act is also symbolic because it shows a desire to go back to his roots.

            With the close of the novel, Manzanar has made his shift from an observer in society to an actual participant. Instead of being separated by barriers of a mask and gloves, now Manzanar actually conducts with the world. He says that he is able to actually feel the vibrations of the cars on the road. There is nothing obstructing his view and he is now a part of what is happening outside in the world. With this symbolic transformation of a man who existed as an observer in the world to a person who is engaged with the world, Yamashita seems to be speaking to the classes of society. Using Manzanar as a tool to understand the strong divide between the classes helps the reader to better grasp this binary. Watching a character move from the very top of society go to the very bottom of society is a strong illustration that speaks to everyone in society who has been subjected to the class system. Yamashita opens the reader’s eyes to life on both ends of the spectrum, and to the consciousness that comes from understanding them.

Passage from Tropic of Orange, by Karen Tei Yamashita, page 197“Once again, Arcangle offered his services to pull the bus.  Slipping the steel cable through the axle and hooking his old skin through the steel talons.  And once again, the people scoffed at his efforts and gawked amazed as the bus inched slowly along the highway, harnessed to an old man’s leathery person, skin pulled taut across his boney chest and empty stomach, minute droplets of blood kissing the earth, dragging everything forward.  It was as the burden of gigantic wings, too heavy to fly.”I believe this passage represents the idea about how the past has shaped the present and how the present will shape the future.  Steel:The steel represent the era during World War I when immigrants from Mexico moved to steel producing areas like Los Angeles in search of work.  Immigrant workers were desperate for work and money.  Since immigrants were unskilled laborers they were given little pay for grueling work.  This has shaped the present and future for laborers immigrating from Mexico because US companies know that unskilled laborers can be exploited for work.Disbelief by on-lookers of Arcangle’s ability to pull the bus:  The disbelief by on-lookers of Arcangle’s ability to move the bus represents the difficulty of crossing the border into the United States.  This is because many illegal immigrants try to cross the border and if caught are sent back.  The increase of illegal immigrants crossing the border has increased the present and future need for improved security and monitoring at the border.     Holes in his chest and the blood dripping from them and kissing the earth:The holes in his chest represent a void in his life, culture, identity, science of belonging, or something else.  The blood dripping from the holes might be a prediction of the future.  It could predict life or death (http://www.kchanson.com/ARTICLES/blood.html).  It could predict the outcome of the fight he soon will be in.  Is this fight the void he must fill?  Will it be the end of his life and the beginning of a new (Sol, Rafael, and bobby reuniting).  The blood also can mean purity.  Purity can be a representation of order in society.  “These purity codes provide the society with meaning, orientation, and maps of behavior and belonging” (http://www.kchanson.com/ARTICLES/blood.html).  

Tropic of Orange by Karen Tei Yamashita is a book that is based in dualities. From the first few lines where Rafaela is discussing life versus death, light versus dark and closed versus open spaces, the bipolar nature of this book is hard to ignore. At first glance, these binary comparisons can make the story seem contradictory and confusing especially if one doesn’t recognize the point being made. Although the book is riddled with comparisons, I really want to focus on the duality of hope.

On one hand, Yamashita presents this sense of hopelessness as seen in Arcangel’s trip north, to Los Angeles. As he travels people tell him that he is not big enough or strong enough to make it in the harsh reality of his destination. Even as he repeatedly proves himself to have the will to persevere in the face of adversity, there are still people along the way who tell him that he has no future if he continues on his journey. This sense of the American Dream and the ability to make something out of nothing, is shot down and dismissed as though it is some sort of fairy tale. It’s a really depressing moment in the book because we have all of these characters who are struggling in some part of their lives and yet the one character who shows the most resilience is essentially told that he will never be good enough for anything that he could see in America.

On the other side of the spectrum there is this idea of finding hope in what seems to be a very unfortunate situation. Take, for instance, the homeless population of LA and the freeway fire. Here we have people who are without a semi-permanent place to live and who are just wandering from one area to the next hoping to improve their quality of life, however low it may start out to be. Then, we also have the fire, blocking in a section of cars that their owners believe must be left for ruin. It is in this hell of flame and abandoned property that we find unexpected life. The homeless move into the cars and start up their own neighborhood complete with “street” names and gardens, which are of particular importance in this discussion. By creating these gardens full of fresh fruits and vegetables, Yamashita is conveying the ability of life overcoming the death of another object to create something new, something that represents hope. This hope is what could be described as that “silver lining” or “light at the end of the tunnel” for situations that are less than favorable. I believe it is Yamashita’s way of reminding her readers to set aside pessimism and look for the greener grass.

One might wonder why Yamashita chose to portray both sides of this topic and I believe it is because she wants us to recognize that one phenomenon cannot exist without the other. Without the ability to be hopeless then there is no need for hope at all – a confusing concept to say the least.