Identity Negotiation Of Japanese Immigrants In America

To convey political and cultural intentions,postcolonial writers often employ code-mixing,an important linguistic device that Japanese American novelist Ruth Ozeki(1956-)excels at in her literary creation.In Ozeki’s novels,code-mixing occurs between English and Japanese.This paper examines the code-mixing in Ozeki’s novels,including My Year of Meats(1998),All Over Creation(2003)and A Tale for the Time Being(2013),in the hope of exploring how Japanese immigrants try to foster harmony among the intrinsic aspects of their multiple identities.It can be argued that Ozeki uses code-mixing to uncover the process of Japanese immigrants’ identity negotiation.The thesis falls into five chapters.The first chapter offers an introduction to Ruth Ozeki’s works and the Ozeki study,and a brief analysis of the code-mixing in ethnic minority writings.The next chapter investigates how alternation in My Year of Meats functions in valorizing the Japanese immigrants’ cultural difference and non-belonging to either side.The third chapter looks into the congruent lexicalization between English and Japanese in All Over Creation,demonstrating that its directing to both sides empowers the Japanese immigrants to express themselves and connect them with the mainstream culture.In addition,this chapter discusses the function of English-French congruent lexicalization,implying that the strategy creates an alignment of the ethnic minorities.The fourth chapter examines the insertions in A Tale for the Time Being,arguing that the selected Japanese words serve to highlight Japanese immigrants’ pride and the inclination to be re-assimilated to their Japanese side in their multiple identities.The last chapter summarizes Ozeki’s use of code-mixing and its underlying causes.The code-mixing strategy enables Ozeki to paint a striking picture of Japanese immigrants’ attempt at identity negotiation.