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nal Turn in American Studies” (2008), emphasizes that the interface between science and literature in Ozeki’s novels provides a model for “promoting the integration of science and humanities research in environmental protection and ecological thinking” (Heise,383). But there is a premise that cannot be ignored. The analogy between ecological diversity and cultural diversity is questionable. Summer Harrison’s “Environmental Justice Storytelling: Sentiment, Knowledge, and the Body in Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats” (2017) is a further exploration and response to previous research. Harrison argues that the value of My Year of Meats is that its unusual narrative structure provides “a model for how literature can use its emotional power to shock reality and disseminate scientific information, while deploying sentimental rhetorical strategies without falling into emotional traps” (Harrison, 462). Harrison believes that it is improper to blindly emphasize the cultural existence of the body and regard it as the carrier of poisons. The discussion on the rational and conceptual level just ignores the emotion and movement of the body, and the position of interpretation of scientific knowledge often depends on the social identity and cultural inertia of the interpreter. 

II. The Destruction of Nature after Imperial Invasion

A. The Deterioration of Natural Environment

The colonial aggression of the western colonizers causes immense damage to the natural environment. As Elizabeth Deloughrey and George Handley observe, “Natural history, conservation policy, natural language, and the logical systems we use today to talk about conservation and sustainability, all stem from the long colonial exploitation of nature and the assimilation of its global epistemology” (12). In the context of globalization, monopolistic multinationals seek to amass wealth, society ignores the interconnections between human, non-human and the environment, thus accelerating climate change and environmental destruction. 

The United States has lost one-third of its topsoil since colonial times, so much damage in such a short history. Six to seven billion tons of eroded soil, about 85 percent, are directly attributable to livestock grazing and unsustainable methods of farming feed crops for cattle. In 1988, more than 1.5 million acres in Colorado alone were damaged by wind erosion during the worst drought and heat wave since the 1950s. (Ozeki 292)

The colonial aggression of the western colonizers causes immense damage to the natural environment. Therefore, the natural environment in My Year of Meats is valuable. 

B. The Sufferings of Animals

Critics of postcolonial ecocriticism pay attention to the injustice of the disadvantaged and give voice to the constructed image of animals. In the analysis of animal images, postcolonial ecocriticism focuses on opposing the instrumental value of animals and advocating their intrinsic value, that is, their subjectivity. However, in My Year of Meats, animals become objects of utilization, lose freedom and suffer a lot.

In My Year of Meats, Ozeki’s opinion on animals is an example to analyze animal machine theory: “Animals are not masters of themselves, their lives are not in their own hands” (田玉霞 144 ). They are there to be enjoyed, every part of the body is like that: the meat is for eating, the bones 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。