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d it difficult to be at peace with nature, and vice versa” (333). Those who can’t live in harmony with nature have a hard time getting along with humans, which is mainly reflected in two aspects: First, the Japanese kamikaze pilots had to carry out suicide attacks on American soldiers. The second is that Haruki#1 suffered various cases of abuse in the army. 

Chapter Two The Pervasive-Agency of Non-human Matter

2.1 Narrative Agency of Water

The narrative agency means “a nonlinguistic performance of matter manifesting itself often in expressive collectives” (Material Ecocriticism, 30). Material ecocriticism suggests that non-human matter has the ability to generate stories. Material ecocriticism takes matter as “a text, the site of narrativity and storied matter, a corporeal palimpsest in which stories are inscribed” (Iovino & Oppermann, “Theorizing material ecocriticism” 453). The formation process of matter implies “textuality”, which is presented in two ways: “First, the description and representation of non-human matter’s agency in narrative texts; second, the narrative ability of matter as a text gives rise to meanings in interaction” (Iovino & Oppermann, “Material Ecocriticism” 79-80). In other words, during the material-discursive process, matter has the ability to record its own narrative and simultaneously engage in “intra-action.” In A Tale for the Time Being, the water, as a storied matter, can narrate the crimes of the Japanese army during World War II and the interaction of human and nature with its own agency. Besides, water is helpful to heal human spirit. 

2.2 Meaning Generation of Animal

As part of nature, no matter can exist completely separated from other matter but is in a state of “entanglement” in different ways. Barad uses “intra-action,” to denote “the mutual constitution of entangled agencies” (502). In A Tale for the Time Being, the interaction of animals and people is a perfect example of how things entangle with one another. In the process of the intra-action between humans and animals, meaning is created. The death of animals in the forest reflects that the natural system has been violated by humans, and the miserable experience of animal becomes a mirror image of the natural system. According to material ecocriticism, in many cases, “human agency and meanings are deeply interlaced with the emerging agency and meaning of these non-human beings.” (Iovino & Oppermann, “Material Ecocriticism” 83). That is to say that the meaning generation of human agency is closely related to the agency of non-human nature. Therefore, the poisoning of animals also symbolizes the double poisoning of human matter, both physically and mentally. 

Like humans, animals belong to the world, and each of them has the right to survive and occupies a place in the natural system. Some humans in the novel view animals as static and passively accepted, they violate other creatures’ rights to survive in order to further satisfy their own interests and egocentric needs. However, non-human beings are intricately entangled with humans. It is worth noting that “to be entangled is not simply to be intertwined with another, as in the joining of separate entities, but to lack an independent, self-contained existence” (Barad ix). That is to say the existence of animal is entwined with humans. As the important part of natural systems, an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。