Junkyard Yamashita

Peer Reviewed
Title:
The Junkyard in the Jungle: Transnational, Transnatural Nature in Karen Tei Yamashitas Through
the Arc of the Rain Forest
Journal Issue:
Journal of Transnational American Studies, 2(1)
Author:
Simal, Begoa, University of Corunna
Publication Date:
2010
Permalink:
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4567j2n1
Acknowledgements:
The completion of this article was made possible by the Xunta de Galicia, specifically in the
generous funding of our research group, CLEU, by the Consellera de Educacin e Ordenacin
Universitaria, and of our research project Ecoloxa humana (Consellera de Innovacin e
Industria, PGIDIT07 PXIB104255PR). I would also like to thank Professor Jos Liste Noya and the
anonymous JTAS reviewers, whose suggestions proved especially helpful when revising certain
sections of the article. My final thanks to Cristina Gmez and Vernica F. Peebles for spotting the
inevitable typos and mistakes.
Keywords:
ecocriticism, transnational, transnatural, Karen Tei Yamashita, Leo Marx
Abstract:
In this new millennium the relatively young field of ecocriticism has had to face important
transdisciplinary, transnational, and transnatural challenges. This article attempts to demonstrate
how two of the major changes that environmental criticism is currently undergoing, the
transnational turn and the transnatural challenge, have both been encoded in Through the Arc
of the Rain Forest (1990), the first novel published by Karen Tei Yamashita. I particularly focus
on a significant episode in Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, when a peculiar anthropogenic
ecosystem is discovered, and interpret it according to Leo Marxs classic paradigm of the
machine in the garden. I intend to prove that Yamashitas novel not only revisits the old master
theory but also revamps it by destabilizing the classic human-nature divide inherent in first-
wave ecocriticism and by adding the transnational ingredient. Thus, the machine-in-the-garden
paradigm is updated in order to incorporate the broadening of current environmental criticism, both
literally (globalization) and conceptually (transnatural nature). While at times Marxs paradigm may
metamorphose in intriguing ways, the old trope also corroborates its continuing validity. Though
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filtered by the sieve of globalization and shaken by the emergence of cyborg ecosystems, the
machine in the garden has survived as a compelling ecocritical framework, even if it occasionally
mutates into a junkyard in the jungle.
Supporting material:
Revised version October 2009
Copyright Information:
Copyright 2010 by the article author(s). All rights reserved.
eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing

services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic
research platform to scholars worldwide.
Simal: The Junkyard in the Jungle: Transnational, Transnatural Nature in Karen Tei Yamashi...

TheJunkyardintheJungle:
Transnational,TransnaturalNaturein
KarenTeiYamashitas
ThroughtheArcoftheRainForest

BEGOASIMAL
Maybethetransiswhatmywritingis.
KarenTeiYamashita,interviewedbyTeHsingShan
Since the emergence of environmental criticism as a field of literary and cultural

studiesintheearly1990s,comparativelylittleattentionhasbeenpaidtoliterarytexts
writtenbyethnicwritersintheUS,withtheobviousexceptionofNativeAmerican
literature, 1 an omission that has only recently begun to be rectified. 2 Another
significant absence in contemporary environmental criticism is that of updated
reexaminationsofearlyecocriticaltheories,aneglectwhichmayimplicitlyfosterthe
viewthatsuchtheoreticalmodelshavebecomeuselessinthenewhistoricalcontext:
a postindustrial world where the natural and the cultural/technological engage in
increasingly complex interactions, a globalized world engulfed in transnational
consumeristcapitalism,butwhosepopulationisatthesametimeshowingsignsofa
certainenvironmentalawareness.Thepurposeofthisessayistorecoverandbreathe
new life into a bynow master theory in (proto)ecocriticism, the theoretical
frameworkputforwardbyLeoMarxinTheMachineintheGarden(1964),byinserting
it in the new context of a postmodern, transnational, and, I would argue,
transnaturalworld,andtodosowiththehelpofThroughtheArcoftheRainForest
(1990),thefirstnovelpublishedbyKarenTeiYamashita.3However,beforeexploring
Yamashitas work and its peculiar revamping of the machine in the garden, it
becomes necessary to outline the new developments in ecocriticism that have
1
Journal of Transnational American Studies, 2(1), Article 13 (2010)
renderedclassicecocriticalwork,suchasMarxs,notsomuchobsoleteasinneedof
reassessment.
EcocriticismintheNewMillennium:
Transdisciplinary,Transnational,andTransnaturalChallenges
Ecocriticism has been variously described, from Glotfeltys simple but influential
definition of the field as the study of the relationship between literature and the
physical environment4or Buells equally seminal description of ecocricitism as the
explorationoftherelationshipbetweenliteratureandtheenvironmentconducted
in a spirit of commitment to environmentalist praxis, 5 to more elaborate
explanations that describe it as a branch of green studies that considers the
relationshipbetweenhumanandnonhumanlifeasrepresentedinliterarytextsand
which theorizes about the place of literature in the struggle against environmental
destruction.6What all of these definitions have in common is the fact that they
incorporateanexplicitethicalandpoliticalagendaintotheirdescriptionsofthefield:
the ultimate goal of ecocriticism would be that of preventing environmental
deteriorationthroughatheoreticallyinformedanalysisofliteratureandculture.
Although the green wave of environmentalism did not acquire social
visibility and prominence until the institution of Earth Day in 1970, it can be argued
thatenvironmentalconcernsgraduallybecamepartofthesocialandpoliticalagenda
inthe1960s,atthesametimeasothercounterculturalmovements.InGiveEartha
Chance,AdamRomearguesthattheemergenceofenvironmentalismowesmuch
to the interaction of three factors taking place in the sixties: the revitalization of
liberalism, the growing discontent of middleclass women, and the explosion of
student radicalism and countercultural protest.7In 1962, an ecobook, Rachel
CarsonsSilentSpring,becameabestsellerandinfluencedawholegeneration.8Also
in the 1960s and in the early 1970s, we have examples of what can be considered
protoecocriticism or ecocriticism avantlalettre: Leo Marxs The Machine in the
Garden (1964), Raymond Williamss The Country and the City (1973), and Joseph
Meekers The Comedy of Survival (1974).9And yet it was not until the 1990s that
ecocriticism became a distinct field within literary theory and criticism, with the
creation of academic associations such as the ASLE (Association for the Study of
Literature and the Environment) in 1992, and its associated journal, ISLE
(InterdisciplinaryStudiesinLiteratureandtheEnvironment),whichwasfirstlaunched
in 1993.10Two seminal books of ecocriticism would also appear in the mid1990s:
Lawrence Buells The Environmental Imagination (1995) and Cheryll Glotfelty and
Harold Fromms anthology, The Ecocriticism Reader (1996).11Although, still in 1999,
several critics continued to refer to ecocriticism as a newlyemerging field,12with
the turn of the century and of the millennium, ecocritical theory and practice have
gained both respect and visibility. 13 At the same time, it has had to face new
challenges,amongthemtheverynatureofecocriticism.
2
Nature has traditionally conjured up images of more or less unspoiled

nonhuman contexts such as woods, jungles, mountains, etc. And yet we human
beingsareoftenviewedaspartofnatureaswell;therefore,humanartifactsand
anthropogenicecosystemsshouldbeconsideredasmuchnaturalasunnatural.
Tryaswemay,wecannotgetawayfromthisaporeticsituation,especiallywhenwe
realizethat,asTimothyMortonremindsus,natureisbothinsideandoutside,we
and the other(s). Mortons EcologyWithoutNature (2007) starts with a deliberately
polemicalattackontheveryconceptofnature:Strangeasitmaysound,theideaof
nature is getting in the way of properly ecological forms of culture, philosophy,
politicsandart.14However,heisnottheonlycritictohavepointedouttheradical
indeterminacyoftheverynotionunderlyingecocriticalanalysis:naturehasproved
problematicfromthebeginning.ProminentecocriticssuchasWilliamsorBuellhave
noted that the term itself is a fictive or discursive construct,15a notorious
semantic and metaphysical trap16; in sum, nature is a nominal nightmare, hardly
possibletodefine,fullyladenwithhumanhistory,complicatedandchanging.17
Precisely because of the changing and everexpanding meanings of nature and
while still recognizing the widespread use of naturebased ecocriticism as an
umbrella word for disparate trends within the critical movement, in his 2005 book
Buellprefersthelesscommonlabelofenvironmentalcriticism.18Forhim,thisterm
betterreflectstherecenttendencytobroadenthenotionofenvironmentinorder
toincludenotonly(asusedtobethecase)themoreorlessunspoilednatureand
wildernessofcanonicalnaturewriting,butalsourbansettingsanddegradednatural
landscapes,ashiftwhichismatchedbyanaccompanyingeffort,slowbutinexorable,
toincorporateaglobal,transnationalperspectivetothetraditionallocalone.19
Not only Buell but also other critics envision the future of ecocriticism as
moving beyond the already sanctioned nature writing. Already in 1996, while
reviewing Glotfelty and Fromms Ecocriticism Reader, Sven Birkerts pointed out the
riskofprogrammaticsimplicityoftooliteralafocusontraditionalunderstandings
ofnatureandarguedinsteadforamoreinclusiveideaofenvironmentonthepart
of ecocritics.20In a polemical article published in 1999, Dana Phillips deals with the
uneasy relationships between literary theory and ecocriticism and insists on that
dangerofprogrammaticsimplicitythatBirkertshadfirstnotedsomeyearsearlier.
Phillipswarnsagainstasimplistictypeofenvironmentalcriticisminwhichecocritics
confine themselves to reading realistic texts realistically, as if they were merely
somesortofumpire,squintingtoseeifagivendescriptionofapaintedtrilliumor
aliveoaktreeisitselfwellpaintedandlively.21InTheGreeningofLiteraryScholarship,
StevenRosendaletakesupbothoftheobjectionsraisedbyBirkertsandrecognizes
that the received naturewriting canon and the relatively small arsenal of critical
approaches that have been applied to it have been too narrowly limited.22In their
introduction to the significantly titled Beyond Nature Writing: Expanding the
Boundaries of Ecocriticism, Karla Armbruster and Kathleen R. Wallace contend that
for environmental criticism to have a significant impact as a literary methodology
3
beyondthestudyofnaturewriting,ecocriticshavetoprovethatsuchanapproach
is more than relevant to critics working in other literary and theoretical fields and
explore texts other than nature writing,23or, using Timothy Mortons words, the
timeshouldcomewhenweaskofanytext,aswehavedoneintherealmofgender,
what that particular literary text says about the environment, instead of hav[ing]
alreadydecidedwhichtextswewillbeasking.24Intheaforementionedanthology,
ArmbrusterandWallacenotonlyarguefortheneedtogobeyondnaturewriting,
but also maintain that such expansion is already, albeit timidly, taking place, as the
essaysintheircollectiondemonstratebyengaginganenlargedenvironmentthat
comprises cultivated and built landscapes, the natural elements and aspects of
those landscapes, and cultural interactions with those natural elements, and by
applyingecocriticaltheoriesandmethodstotextsthatmightseemunlikelysubjects
becausetheydonotforegroundthenaturalworldorwilderness.25
However, Armbruster and Wallaces chosen scope was rather exceptional at
the time, for attention to texts other than nature writing has been rare in
ecocriticism until fairly recently. In The Future of Environmental Criticism, Buell
reviewsthedevelopmentoftheecocriticalschoolfromitsinceptionandpositstwo
main stages in environmental criticism: a first wave that exhibited a restricted
understandingofenvironmentandasecondwave,moresociallyoriented,which
includesschoolssuchasecofeminismandsocialecocriticism.Firstwavepractitioners
of ecocriticism, consciously or not, regarded nature and humankind as rather
separate realms and chose to focus on ecocentric values.26In contrast, second
wave critics have started to question organicist models of conceiving both
environment and environmentalism, by pointing out how the categories of the
natural and the manmade are irretrievably mixed and imbricated with each
other,andbyarguingforarevisedenvironmentalethicsthatincludesthevexedissue
of environmental justice (22), also known as ecojustice.27Both firstwave and
secondwave ecocritics, Buell adds, have equally endeavored to make visible
neglected (sub)genres like nature writing or toxification narratives, as well as
proffering the muchneeded interpretation of environmental subtexts through
historicalandcriticalanalysesthatemployreadytohandanalyticaltoolsofthetrade
together with less familiar ones.28Last but not least, ecocritics have rescued from
oblivion and/or reinterpreted subgenres and themes such as the pastoral, eco
apocalypticism,andenvironmentalracism(130).
Inordertoexplainthedifferenttrendscoexistinginecocriticismtoday,or,as
he puts it, with the aim of plotting internal disparities (98), Buell describes a
continuumalongtwoaxes,averticalandahorizontalone,whichcanbegraphically
translated as follows (including, in blue italics, how certain associations and
movementswouldbeplacedinthismap,accordingtoBuell):
4

TheshiftBuellperceivesinrecentenvironmentalcriticismwouldtravelfrom
northtosouth.ToBuellsinitialschemaIwouldliketoaddathirddimensioninorder
toincorporatethetransferoffocusfromlocaltoglobalconcerns,theglobalshift
or transnational turn.29In the cube below, the depth line (in purple) signifies the
metaphoricalnorthsouthaxisabove(fromthenorthernpoleofthephysicalnatural
environmenttothesouthernpoleofthesocialenvironment);thelinegoingfromleft
toright(ingreen)referstothewesteastaxis(withtheweststandingfortheradical
ecocentrism of deep ecologists, and the east representing the traditional
anthropocentricview);finally,thenewaxisIpropose,movingfromthefronttothe
backwallofthecube(inblue),signifiestheshiftfromthelocal(front)concernsto
the global (back) concerns. In the northsouth and frontback axes, an arrow, not
just a line, has been drawn to emphasize the two main shifts described above, the
geographicandconceptualbroadeningofenvironmentalcriticism.
5

Whilethegraphicmodelsaboveattempttocapturethepresentsituationof
environmentalcriticism,30theyalsopointtothechallengesofecocriticisminthenear
future. There is some consensus among literary critics and theorists today that the
ecocritical turn is here to stay. However, there is also the shared belief that, even
though much has been attained in the last decade or so as regards both the
popularization and the academic prestige of environmental criticism, the ecocritical
movementisboundtofaceseveralimportantobstaclesinthecomingyears.There
are several challenges waiting around the corner, so to speak. In Ecocriticism, Greg
Garrardsummarizesthemainproblemsforthefutureofenvironmentalcriticismas
follows:first,thedifficultyofdevelopingconstructiverelationsbetweenthegreen
humanitiesandtheenvironmentalsciences,andsecond,therelationshipbetween
globalization and ecocriticism, which, according to Garrard, had hardly been
addressed by ecocritics before the turn of the century.31Therefore, at least two
majorchallengesaccostecocriticism:thetransdisciplinaryandthetransnationalones,
towhichIwouldaddthetransnaturalchallenge.
6
(1)THETRANSDISCIPLINARYCHALLENGE
As Glen A. Love explains in Ecocriticism and Science: Toward Consilience? one

should not forget that the very origins of ecocriticism lay in the need for
interdisciplinary bridges, or, echoing Meekers words, the growing need among
people...tofindasenseofintegrityfortheirownlivesandfortheirunderstanding
oftheworldaroundthem.32Still,itistruethatverylittlerealinterdisciplinarywork
hasbeendonethataffectsthegreensciencesandthegreenhumanities,mostly
duetoourshortcomingsandmutualdistrust.
However, my lexical choice hints at something qualitatively different from
interdisciplinarity. The very prefix trans in transdisciplinary involves a movement
beyondthetraditionaldivisionofdisciplines.Iampartiallyreferringtothetheoryof
transdisciplinarity as put forward by Basarab Nicolescu. In Transdisciplinarity as
Methodological Framework, Nicolescu explains that both multidisciplinarity
(studyingaresearchtopicinnotjustonedisciplineonly,butinseveralatthesame
time)andinterdisciplinarity(involvingthetransferofmethodsfromonediscipline
toanother)continuetoworkwithintheframeworkofdisciplinaryresearch.33In
contrast, a transdisciplinary approach concerns that which is at once between the
disciplines, across the different disciplines, and beyond all discipline. Therefore,
whereas interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches are necessary in
ecocriticism,theultimategoalwouldbetoachievetransdisciplinariness.
(2)THETRANSNATIONALCHALLENGE
In Ecocriticism and the Transnational Turn in American Studies, and in Sense of

Place and Sense of Planet, both published in 2008, Ursula K. Heise stresses the
relevant role of localism in the emergence of environmental criticism, and the
concomitant suspicion of and resistance toat least on the part of firstwave
ecocriticsanything vaguely reminiscent of globalization, even when the incipient
social environmentalism of the 1960s and 1970s was paradoxically linked with
globalslogansandicons.34Asawhole,Heisepessimisticallynotes,thetheoriesof
subjecthoodandagencythatundergirdecocriticaldiscoursedonotinanysystematic
wayincorporatethechangesthatglobalizationhasbroughtabout,whereastheydo
extensively and with great philosophical sophistication reflect on the modes of
inhabiting local environments.35And yet, as early as 1990, Love maintained that
ecocentrism, a powerful branch of ecocriticism, had, as one of its three main
premises, the supplanting of nationalist with global, ecological critical
perspectives.36Apparently, then, it has taken some time for the global shift to
takehold. However,bythetimeGarrardpointedoutthechallengeofglobalization
(2004),itcouldbearguedthattheglobalecologicalperspectivewasinfullsway.
Indeed, in the almost contemporary The Future of Environmental Criticism (2005),
7
Buellexpressesconvictionthatthisglobalshifthasalreadyoccurredandthatitwill
acquiremoreandmorevisibilityandprominenceinthecomingyears.37
(3)THETRANSNATURALCHALLENGE
Theliteralbroadeningofecocriticism,signifiedbytheglobalshiftoutlinedabove,has
likewisebeenaccompaniedbyaconceptualbroadeningandproblematizationofthe
verynotionoftheenvironment.Thatis,tothetransdisciplinaryandtransnational
challengesoutlinedbyGarrard,Iwouldaddathirdone,thetransnaturalchallenge.
Overthelastfewdecades,environmentalcriticism,whilenotabandoningthestudy
of traditional texts like nature writing (e.g., accounts of the wilderness and
unspoilednature), has turned its attentionto urban settings, sometimes plying a
comparative lens so as to analyze rural and wild natural environments together
with less pristine ones. Even the nature of nature has been thoroughly
reexaminedandquestioned,mostnotablytheslipperyboundariesbetweenwhatis
deemednaturalandwhatisconsideredhumanmade.
In talking about the transnatural shift, however, I am not arguing for a
postnaturalerathatbothcriticsandscientistshaveannouncedindifferentways.38
Rather than envisioning a postnatural scenario, I favor instead understanding our
worldastransnatural.WhatIwanttomeanwiththistermisnotsomuchlivingina
planetwherenaturenolongerexistsIdonotwanttoimplyeithertranscendingor
goingbeyondnature;whatthetermtransnaturalforegroundsisthehardfactthat
natural elements are continually interbreeding with categories other than
natural.Insuchacontext,thechoiceoftransnaturalkeepsremindingusofthe
veryfluidandconstructednatureofthenaturalartificialdivide.Afterall,asGarrard
insightfully notes, environmental criticism is essentially about the demarcation
betweennatureandculture,itsconstructionandreconstruction.39
And yet a caveat should be added here. Ecocritics have surely been
encouraged to go against the grain of dominant, normative ideas about nature,
but under no circumstances must we forget that we have to engage in such an
interrogating process precisely in the name of sentient beings suffering under
catastrophic environmental conditions.40In other words, despite the necessary
emphasisontheconstructednessofthecategoryofthenatural,suchrealization
doesnotexemptusfromtheneedforbetterscientificunderstandingofourplace
withinthebiosphere,41and,Iwouldadd,itdoesnotexemptusfromtheexigency
forsocialandpoliticalactiontosaveourusedplanetandtosaveourselves.
PlasticFlesh
Yamashitas Through the Arc of the Rain Forest not only illustrates the
interpenetrationofthelocalandtheglobal,thetransnationalchallengethatIhave
previously outlined, but it also broaches the transnatural challenge, with abundant
8
examples of the reworking of the culturenature divide.42Foremost among these

revealingepisodesandmotifsare,ontheonehand,thenovelsdoubletropeofthe
ballMataco,and,ontheother,avividdescriptionofametalcemetery,inother
words,thejunkyardinthejungle.43
ThroughtheArcoftheRainForestconstitutesanaptillustrationoftherecent
developments in environmental studies, which, as mentioned earlier, not only
rehearse the movement from the local to the global, but have also broadened the
conceptofwhatwemeanbynatureandtheenvironment.44Asagoodexponent
oftheglobalshiftsketchedabove,Yamashitasnovelfeaturesaninternationalcast
of characters who end up meeting at a globalized national locale: Brazil. Among
these multifarious characters, we find a pilgrim who becomes a successful radio
preacher, a Brazilian couple that builds a pigeoncommunication empire, an
Amazonian peasant who becomes an expert in featherology, an American
businessman with three arms, a fittingly complementary ornithologist with three
breasts,andarecentJapaneseimmigrant,Kazumasa, whoseidiosyncrasyliesinhis
personal satellite, a small ball constantly spinning inches from his forehead that
emerges as the narrator of the story.45By the end of the book, all of these bizarre
characterswillhaveconvergedatasinglesymbolicsite,thenaturalwonderofthe
Matacoplateau,whichsuddenlysurfacesinthemiddleoftheAmazonianforest.
TheunfathomableMatacoexpanseismadeofanunknown,highlyresilient
material,thesamekindofplasticthat,welaterlearn,alsoconstitutesthefleshof
Kazumasas ball. The Mataco eventually turns out to be the eruption of
nonbiodegradablewastefromindustrializedcountriesinthemiddleoftherainforest.
Thus,itcouldbearguedthatthe emergenceoftheMatacoclearlyandeffectively
turns the wilderness of the Amazonian rainforest into a hybrid bionetwork, an
overlappingoforganicandinorganicrealms,ananthrome.46Duetoitsversatilityand
resilience, the miracle plastic is soon greedily mined and extracted from the
Mataco site, and all sorts of products are made of the new, apparently
indestructiblematerial,inauguratingthePlasticsAge.47LiketheMatacoitself,many
of the plastic artifacts made of Mataco material seem about to traverse the
boundary that separates the natural from the artificial, even the living from the
nonliving.Plastic,forinstance,imitatesfeathers(157),bodyparts(14243),food(143),
allsortsofplantsandanimalslikepalmtrees,zebras,orlions(168).TheMatacois
the perfect simulacrum indeed: The animated animals, also constructed in the
revolutionary plastic, were mistaken for real animals until people questioned their
repetitivemovements,theirobviouslybenignnature,andthetradeoffinsmells:the
warmstenchofanimalrefuseforasortofgassyvinylscent(168).Andyettheliteral
copies become even more convincing when trying to reproduce immobile beings
such as plants. They come even closer to perfection than the real thing and,
paradoxically, they prove more apt at conveying the very sensation of life than
theirlivingcounterparts:Attheplasticconvention,twotigerlilies,onenaturaland
theothermadefromMatacoplastic,wereexhibitedforpublicexamination.Few,if
9
any,oftheexaminerscouldtellthedifferencebetweentherealandthefake.Only
towardtheendoftheconvention,whenthenaturaltigerlilybegantowiltwithage,
bruisedfrommishandling,werepeopleabletodiscernrealityfromfabrication.The
plasticlilyremainedtheveryperfectionofnatureitself.Matacoplasticmanagedto
recreatethenaturalglow,moisture,freshnesstheverysensationoflife(142).The
flaw of the argument, of course, lies in the fact that nature is not necessarily
perfect,inthesensethatitinvolvesphysicaldeterioration,violence,death.Indeed
the very perfection of nature is not natural. It is, as all social and linguistic
constructions,humanmade.
Together with the mystifications accruing to the perfection of nature and
the temporary confusion of real/plastic life, the very origin of the Mataco
contributestoerodingnotonlytheboundariesbetweenthenaturalandtheartificial,
butalsothosebetweenthelocalandtheglobal,asseveralcriticshavepointedout.
InherinsightfulABizarreEcology:TheNatureofDenaturedNature(2000),Molly
WallacecritiquesFredricJamesonsandBrunoLatourstheoriesandarguesinstead
foranunderstandingofpostmodernecologythatdoesawaywiththedualisticvision
ofanatureculturedichotomy.ForWallace,Yamashitasnovelbuildsbridgesacross
traditionaldivides,byprofferinganecosystemicvisionofnatureandculturewhich
providesamodelforandacritiqueofhybridity.48InLocalRockandGlobalPlastic,
Ursula Heise addresses the manner in which the phenomena of disembedding
(Giddens) and deterritorialization (Tomlinson) figure in Through the Arc of the Rain
Forest, as well as the links between ecological and cultural globalism that the
author forges in her novel. 49 As Heise convincingly claims, while Yamashita
successfullyaddressestheambiguitiesofanecologicallybasedsenseofplaceinthe
ageofglobalization(132),sheeventuallycircumventstheneedtoprovideadequate
answersto theecologicalproblemsraisedinthebookbyprofferingasociocultural
solution instead: Ecological deterritorialization is contained by cultural
reterritorialization(139).
Nature and human actions, global and local threads crisscross and get
entangledintheMataco.WellintothenovelwelearnthattheMatacoexpanse,as
mentioned earlier, is the result of huge landfills of nonbiodegradable material
buriedundervirtuallyeverypopulatedpartoftheEarth,whichundertremendous
pressure had pushed ever farther into the lower layers of the Earths mantle,
fromwheretheseliquiddepositsofthemoltenmasshadbeensqueezedthrough
underground veins to virgin areas of the Earth.50In the very formation of the
Matacoplateau,therefore,bothhumanactivitiesmostlytheexcesstheygenerate
in the form of nonbiodegradable wasteand natural forcesin this case the
pressures and movements that take place under the external layer of the planet
combine to create a material that, although anthropogenic, cannot be totally
disengagedfromnature.
At this stage, then, we cannot but wonder whether the traditional natural
artificialdichotomystillremainsinplaceinourpostmodern,transnaturalworld.With
10
theadventofpoststructuralism,ithasbecomehardlypossibleforanycriticalschool
to embrace the essentialist navet that is so noticeable in early ecocriticism. As
Jameson puts it, the issue of how antifoundationalism can thus coexist with the
passionateecologicalrevivalofasenseofNatureistheessentialmysteryattheheart
ofwhatItaketobeafundamentalantinomyofthepostmodern.51Canweactually
locatesomeelementorthingthathasnotbeentamperedwithordirectlyproduced
byhumanbeings?LeoMarxindirectlypointsatthisdilemmainhisrhetoricalquestion
about the apparent paradox and clash between the machine and the garden: If
technology is the creation of man, who is a product of nature, then how can the
machine in the landscape be thought to represent an unresolvable conflict? 52
Armbruster and Wallace urge ecocritics to continue to engage in a revision of the
natureculture divide by approaching both poles of the dichotomy as interwoven
rather than as separate sides of a dualistic construct. 53 In Ideas of Nature,
Williamsexplicitlyarguesagainsttryingtosevernaturefromhumanaction,since,
then, it even ceases to be nature.54Contrary to what we would expect, the
separationbetweenmanandnature,claimsWilliams,isnotsimplytheproductof
modernindustryorurbanism,butcanbefoundinmanyearlierkindsoforganized
labour, including rural labour (295).55In a similarly paradoxical phrasing, Williams
explainshowthemorehumannatureinteractionsincrease,themorenecessarythe
separation between both entities becomes (29596). In the end, it does not make
much sense to insist on the dichotomies people vs. nature or natural vs.
artificial:humanbeingshavemixedourlabourwiththeearth,ourforceswithits
forcestoodeeplytobeabletodrawbackandseparateeitherout(296).56Itis by
carefullylookingintothespecificmaterialpracticesthatcomplicatetheinteractions
betweenhumansandnaturethatwemayarriveatsomehonestreassessmentof
thesituation.57
The very question of what is natural and what is artificial, as raised by the
Matacoplastic,isprefiguredinanapparentlyinsignificantepisodeatthebeginning
ofthenovel:theoriginofsandbottling.Thenarratortellsushowthefirstinnocent
gesture of filling a bottle with multicolored sands as a nostalgic memento of ones
birthplaceissooncooptedandmarketedasatouristsouvenir:

Ayoungtalentedboyhadthengottentheideaofpouringthe
coloredsandinbottlesinsuchawayastocreatepictures....
One day, a tourist brought a picture of the Mona Lisa and
askedtheboytoduplicateitinasandbottle,andhedid.After
that, the boy left the town and went away to be famous,
sandbottling every sort of picture from the President of the
Republic to the great Pel. Someone said he no longer used
real sand but some synthetic stuff dyed in every color you
could imagine. Someone said he was even making sand
pictures in bottles of fine crystal and mixing the sand with
goldandsilverdust.58
11
Thedriftfromthesimpletotheelaborate,fromthenaturaltotheartificial,is
heredescribedastheshiftfromtherealtothesynthetic,obliquelypresentedas
nonreal, that is, ambiguously construed as either (postmodern) virtual or
(premodern) magical.59Likewise, the central naturalartificial trope, the Mataco, is
bothadoredassomeancientsubstratumeruptingfromthedepthsoftheearthand
praised as the ultimate modern scientific discovery. In fact, as mentioned earlier,
Mataco plastic becomes the postmodern material par excellence, a superbly
malleable simulacrum, a virginal product that the transnational corporation GGG
soon eyes with equal amounts of perplexity and greed, until it literally becomes
plasticmoney60:

The wonderful thing about the Mataco plastic was its
capabilitytoassumeawiderangeofforms....Everyindustry
from construction to fashion would jump into Mataco
plastics. At a plastics convention, all sorts of marvels were
displayedcars made completely out of Mataco plastic,
from the motor to the plush velveteen fabrics of the seats;
imitationfursandleathersmadeintocoatsanddresspumps;
Danish furniture made of Mataco teak; and all sorts of
plants, from potted petunias to palm trees. The remarkable
thing about Mataco plastic was its incredible ability to
imitateanything.(142)61

In spite of such malleability, this apparently nonbiodegradable plastic that
excelsatimitation,likethejunkyardinthejungle,asweshallshortlysee,iseventually
swallowed by and integrated into nature, enacting the symbolicthough not
uncomplicatedreturn that the title of the final section hints at. The Mataco
plastic, which seemed to be immune to all life forms, eventually falls prey to some
mysteriousbacteria,whichliterallygnawitaway.Thewholerangeofproductsmade
ofMatacoplastic,fromclothestofood,soonstartdeterioratingandfinallycrumble
down,andwiththemtheplasticempireitself.Thefirstsignofsuchdestructioncan
beseeninthenarratingballanditsplasticflesh.OnedayLourdesandKazumasa
notice that the swirling ball looks more lopsided and less spherical than usual;
indeed,theballclaims,

I seemed fraught with tiny holes. . . . Something was eating
me, carving out delicate pinhole passages, which wound
intricately throughout my sphere. . . . Every day, Kazumasa
watched more and more of me disappear, my spin grow
slowerandmoreerratic....Oneday,hetouchedmetenderly
and was shocked to find his finger pierce the now very thin
veneerofmysurface.Within,Ihadbeencompletelyhollowed
12
out by something, by some invisible, voracious and now

gorgedthing.
The next day, Kazumasa awoke and wept
uncontrollably at the unobstructed view of the room before
him.(2056)

The oxymoron of plastic flesh intuited both in the personcumball known
asKazumasaandintheveryambiguityoftheMatacohasalreadybeenencodedin
theshapeofcrypticomensensconcedineverynookandcrannyofthenovel:inthe
reference to the plastic snakes that vendors sell on the street (35), in the GGG
memos about Natural vs. Plastic Plants and Employee Morale (52) or about the
viabilityofartificialnonpollutingsnow(54),inthecontrastofthedenseconcrete
junglewiththeAmazonianlivingjungle(82),inthedepictionofGGGasagreat
functioningmiracle,aliving,breathingorganism(111),or,asweshallnextsee,inthe
veryparadoxofnatureimitatinghumanartifacts(100)inthejunkyardecosystem.
The oxymoron naturalartificial reappears in a more explicit way when we witness
how the plastic paradise of Chicolndia, including its plastic plants and animals,
becomeshorriblydisfigured,shotfulloftinyominousholes,themechanicalentrails
of everything exposed beneath the oncehealthy plastic flesh (2067, emphasis
added).However,itisinthedescriptionoftheaforementionedjunkyardecosystem
that the paradox of mechanical entrails and plastic flesh is articulated in all its
complexity; it is there where the existence of an artificial nature becomes
especiallynotoriousandsignificant.
TheJunkyardintheJungle
Just as the sandbottle episode prefigured the oxymoronic plastic flesh, the huge
dump that the Mataco turns out to be finds a smaller replica in the natural
artificial ecosystem born around a metal cemetery where abandoned planes and
cars coexist with sentient beings. Yamashitas ecological experiment has been
interpretedasanaptcommentaryonthenatureculturedivide,thusreinforcingthe
issues previously raised by the Mataco. 62 Heise cogently explains how, in the
description of this peculiar ecosystem, Yamashita has exaggerated what are, in
principle,basicallyplausibleprocessesofadaptation,andshehasdonesoinorder
toemphasizeboththetransformabilityofbiologicalspeciesandtheirpartlynatural,
partlytechnologicalenvironments(145).ForJinqiLing,themetalcemeteryepisode
mostprominentlyfunctionsasapainfulreminderofsystematicimperialistviolence
onthepartoftheUnitedStates,sincetheabandonedwaraircraftandothervehicles,
all USmade, bring echoes of the postWWII U.S. hegemonic control over Latin
America. 63 Complementing these various interpretations, I will argue that the
particular bionetwork created around the metal cemetery can be read as the
junkyardinthejungleinthelightofLeoMarxsTheMachineintheGarden.
13
Marxs seminal book mulls over the multiple ways in which American
literature records the irruption of technology in what had long been regarded as a
natural,evenvirginal,landscape.Theauthorfirstexploresthetropesofthegarden
and the machine in a separate fashion before putting them side by side as two
kingdoms of force (echoing The Education of Henry Adams). Marx claims that the
pastoral tradition, with its emphasis on escape from urban life and retreat into
nature, acquires a special import in American literature, as America has
traditionallybeenviewedasanEdenicnewland,theBraveNewWorldindeed.Marx
particularly focuses on what he terms the Sleepy Hollow moment, where the
intrusion of a machine (or its surrogate) interrupts (and effectively disrupts) a
pastoral moment.64In order to render this literary topos less nationally specific and
more transnational, I have rechristened Marxs interrupted idyll with a name
derivingfromanotherfamousLatinliterarytopos:locusamoenustruncatus.Inorder
to substantiate his theory, Leo Marx includes analyses of canonical American texts
fromtheperspectiveofthisinterruptedidyllandtheclashoftropesthatitentails.
MarxsthesisisbothcapturedandturnedonitsendinYamashitasperceptive
descriptionofthejunkyardinthejungle.Halfwaythroughthenovel,welearnfrom
the narrator how a huge parking lot is discovered in the middle of the Amazonian
rainforest,aspacefullofabandonedplanesandcars,wrappedupincrisscrossing
lianas[that]completelyengulfedeverything.65Onepartofthispeculiarparkinglot
nowcontainsalargepitofgrey,stickygoop,composedprimarilyofnapalm(99).
Incredible though it may seem, this idiosyncratic anthrome, the anthropogenic
ecosystem of the jungle junkyard, has actually produced new species of fauna and
flora, among them mice that burrowed in the exhaust pipes, wrapped up in
splotchy greenandbrown hair (mimetically camouflaging themselves in old
military vehicles) or else in shiny coats of chartreuse, silver and taxi yellow
(imitating the colors of other cars and planes); a rare butterfly whose exquisite
reddishcoloringisgivenbyasteadydietofhydratedferricoxide,orrustywater;
the new air plant with carnivorous flowers that attached itself to the decaying
vehicles;orthetribeofmonkeysthathadestablishedterritoryinthecarcassesof
thebomberplanesandhadshotanothertribetoextinction(1001).66
Should we apply Marxs grid to this significant locus amoenus truncatus, we
wouldrecordnotonlytheobvioussimilaritiesbutalsothewaysinwhichthisepisode
departsfromthemastertheory.Trueenough,theabandonedparkinglotisfound
byteamsofentomologistswho,likethetouristsbeforethem,inaneopastoralmove,
try to escape from their urban environments in search of genuine nature, in this
case, more specifically, in search of a rare butterfly. The physical intrusion or
emergenceofajunkyardfullofoldvehiclesinthemiddleoftheapparentlypristine,
virgin rainforest not only interferes with their pleasure but totally disrupts the
pastoralmoment:anobviouscaseoflocusamoenustruncatus.Despitetheostensible
similarities,onecannotignorethedifferencesbetweenMarxsinterruptedidyllsor
lociamoenitruncati,andYamashitaspeculiarbrandofthemachineinthegarden.
14
To start with, Yamashitas chosen location is a jungle, not a garden, a middle

landscapeinbetweencivilizationandwilderness.Inaddition,wecannotfailto
noticethatthesettingforthisepisode,andformostofthenovel,isnottheUS,but
Brazil.And,lastbutnotleast,inThroughtheArcoftheRainForestitisnotanoisy,
active machine that interrupts the immersion in nature, but a heap of old, useless
carsandplanes,silentandpassive.
ItcouldbearguedthatthefirstdeparturefromMarxstheoreticalframework
canbeeasilybypassed.Moreoftenthannot,thelocusamoenusofthepastoralmode
used to be the garden or some other version of the middle landscape in between
civilization and wilderness.67But a careful reading of the Amazonian forest as
portrayed in Yamashitas book leads us to the realization that, early in the novel,
especiallyafterthediscoveryoftheMataco,therainforestthereaderscomeacross
hasbeentamedtosuchanextentthatitcomesclosertoadomesticatedmiddle
landscape, a garden, than to pure wilderness. By the same token, the next
divergencecouldbecircumventedbynotingthatBrazilisindeedAmericainthestrict
geographic sense and has equally been construed as a virgin land, the New World,
the occasion for a rebirth of countless immigrants (among them Kazumasa).
However,whileAmericaasacontinentremainsthesettingforThroughtheArcofthe
RainForest,itisclearlynottheAmericaLeoMarxhadinmind,theUnitedStatesof
America.
The change in location involved in this second departure poses new,
interesting challenges, most notably because Yamashitas work is usually labeled
Asian American.68After decades of claiming America, the field of Asian American
Studies has undergone a gradual process of denationalization since the early
1990s.69And yet this is not an isolated phenomenon, one that only affects certain
minorities.Thedeterritorializationattendantinglobalizationhasunmooredalltypes
of national and ethnic subjecthood. The concept of the nationstate has fallen into
academic disrepute and globalization has rendered traditional national/ethnic
identities if not obsolete, at least in need of revision.70With the advent of the
global,identitieshavebeensothoroughlyalteredthat,asKoshycautionsus,itnow
becomes imperative that the transformed meaning of the ethnic [and national]
subject in transnationality be reexamined.71While such a reexamination lies well
beyondthescopeofthisarticle,72itcannotbedeniedthatpreviousunderstandings
of American national identity in early ecocritical work, such as Leo Marxs The
Machine in the Garden, have to be revised in our globalized world, a task that
YamashitasThroughtheArcoftheRainForestandsubsequentnovelsenticereaders
todo.73
Finally, the third departure from the master theory involves the nature of
the machines in the junkyard, which will directly determine the ecosystem they are
part of. The living, noisy machines, most notably the train, of the loci amoeni
truncatidescribedinMarxsTheMachineintheGardenareherereplacedbydead
machines, a reminder not of the point of origin but of destination, that is, a stark
15
comment on the byproducts of consumerist capitalism. In this postmodern,

postindustrial context, the junkyard in the jungle becomes a cyborg ecosystem,
wheremachinesandlivingorganismsmeet.AccordingtoDonnaHarawaysfamous
definitionofthecyborg,thelatterisacyberneticorganism,ahybridofmachineand
organism, a condensed image of both imagination and material reality, which
renders the frontiers between living organisms (humans, animals, plants) and
machines particularly leaky.74As boundarytrespassing hybrids, cyborgs, including
cyborgecosystemslikeYamashitasjunkyard,contributetotheproblematizationof
entrenched hierarchies and watertight categories, such as the natural and the
artificial. In order to survive in the surprising cyborgnetwork imagined by
Yamashita,thenewspeciesofmicelivinginthejunkyardadapttoandcopyhuman
made vehicles (military jeeps and planes), which in turn try to imitate nature in
theircamouflaginggreenandbrowncolors.75Natureandculturechaseeachothers
tails.Readinthelightofcyborgtheory,therefore,theecosystemcreatedaroundthe
metalcemeteryconstitutesafurtherexplorationofthedualismsnaturevs.culture
andnaturevs.technology,confirmingthepreviousinsightthatsuchdividesshould
beunderstoodasinterconnecteddialecticsratherthanasclearcutdichotomies.
FromboththeanalysisoftheMatacophenomenonandthecyborgparallel
above, we could apparently conclude that we are indeed living in a transnatural
worldwherenothingremainsuntouched,everythinghasbeendirectlyorindirectly
contaminated by human actions, and culture and technology have invaded what
usedtobetheinviolablerealmofnature.Butthereverseisalsotrueandbecomes
conspicuousnotonlyinthecatastrophicendoftheMatacoplasticempire,butalso
in a complementary reading of the trope of the junkyard in the jungle. Once more
deviatingfromthemastertheory,inYamashitasnoveltheabandoned,rustyplanes
and cars appear to be a monument to the pastor rather, a denunciation of the
American imperialist pastnot an anticipation of the future, as is the case in The
Machine in the Garden. Extricated as they are from the utilitarianism attached to
machines,thevehiclesinYamashitasnovelbecomedenaturalizedmachinesthat,
paradoxically, become naturalized, that is, literally invaded by wild nature. On
this occasion, therefore, the pastoral idyll is not totally interrupted, but it acquires
unsettling undertones: as dead machines, 76 as technological corpses, these old
vehicles are soon ingested, processed, incorporated, by nature itself, a
composting that can be read as enticingly positive despite the initial nightmarish
shock.Indeedthemachine,orrather,thejunkyardmadeofoldmachines,becomes
partoftheland,ofthe(natural?transnatural?)environment.Machinesserveasthe
basisforamicroecosystemwithinthelargerecosystemoftheMatacorainforest,in
a thinly disguised mise en abme. In both cases the separation between the natural
and the artificial is severely undermined. The junkyard in the jungle starts with
Marxsintrusionofthemachineinthegarden,onlytohavethenaturalenvironment
adapttoandfinallyswallowthemachine.Thegardeninthemachine.
16
Conclusion:TowardsaTransnational,TransnaturalPastoral
From Kazumasas metaphorical little planet in ThroughtheArcoftheRainForest to

thegreatshiftingoftheTropicofCancerinthelargerplanetinherTropicofOrange
(1997),77the effects of globalization have been a recurrent concern in Yamashitas
work, which, as SueIm Lee reminds us, urges readers to conceive of a new
collectivesubjectpositioningthatcanexpresstheacceleratedmovementofcapital
andhumanstraversingtheworld.78Inaddition,inThroughtheArcoftheRainForest,
Yamashitas transnational concerns are further interrogated and compounded with
pressing ecological issues that can be read as transnatural, that is, not so much
transcendingorgoingbeyondnature,asinterbreedingitwithcategoriesotherthan
natural.Insum,theverychallengesthatenvironmentalcriticismiscurrentlyfacing,
thebroadeningofitsobjectofstudyandtheglobalshift,havebothbeenencodedin
Yamashitasnovel.
At the same time, as this essay has attempted to demonstrate, a significant
episodeinThroughtheArcoftheRainForestharksbacktotheparadigmputforward
byLeoMarxinthe1960s,themachineinthegarden.Yamashitaspeculiarplastic
pastoralnotonlyrevisitstheoldmastertheorybut,moreimportantly,revampsitby
destabilizing the classic humannature divide inherent in firstwave ecocriticism and
byaddingthetransnationalingredient.Thus,themachineinthegardenparadigmis
updated in order to incorporate the broadening of current environmental criticism,
both literally (globalization) and conceptually (transnatural nature). While at times
Marxsparadigmmaymetamorphoseandundergoareversal,sothatweencountera
peculiargardensproutingfromthemachine,79theoldtropealsocorroboratesits
continuing validity. Though filtered by the sieve of globalization and shaken by the
emergence of cyborg ecosystems, the machine in the garden has survived as a
compelling ecocritical framework, even if it occasionally mutates into a junkyard in
thejungle.
Notes
ThecompletionofthisarticlewasmadepossiblebytheXuntadeGalicia,specifically
inthegenerousfundingofourresearchgroup,CLEU,bytheConselleradeEducacin
e Ordenacin Universitaria, and of our research project Ecoloxa humana
(ConselleradeInnovacineIndustria,PGIDIT07PXIB104255PR).Iwouldalsoliketo
thank Professor Jos Liste Noya and the anonymous JTAS reviewers, whose
suggestions proved especially helpful when revising certain sections of the article.
MyfinalthankstoCristinaGmezandVernicaF.Peeblesforspottingtheinevitable
typosandmistakes.
17
1
ThisphenomenonisknownastheriseofthemythoftheEcologicalIndian.SeeShepard
KrechIII,TheEcologicalIndian:MythandHistory(NewYork:W.W.Norton,1999).
2
Therewereafewsignificantarticlesthatfocusedonmultiethnicliteratureattheturnofthe
centurysee,forexample,PatrickD.Murphy,EnvironmentalEthics,EnvironmentalJustice,
andMulticulturalAmericanLiterature,FictionandDrama10(1998):4153;andMichael
Bennett,AntiPastoralism,FrederickDouglass,andtheNatureofSlavery,inBeyondNature
Writing:ExpandingtheBoundariesofEcocriticism,ed.KarlaArmbrusterandKathleenR.
Wallace(Charlottesville:UniversityPressofVirginia,2001),195209.However,in2002,
JonathanLevinstilldenouncedtherelativedearthofattentiontoethnicAmericanwriting
amongecocritics,andKarlaArmbrusterandKathleenR.Wallacespecificallywonderedwhy
sofewAfricanAmericanvoicesarerecognizedaspartofnaturewritingandecocriticism.
JonathanLevin,BeyondNature?RecentWorkinEcocriticism,ContemporaryLiterature43,
no.1(2002):181;andArmbrusterandWallace,BeyondNatureWriting,2.SeealsoTerrell
Dixons,ElizabethDodds,PatrickD.Murphys,andAndreaParrascontributionstoJean
Arnoldetal.,ForumonLiteraturesoftheEnvironment,PMLA114,no.5(1999):10891104.
Inthelastfewyears,suchdearthisslowlybuteffectivelycomingtoanend,withthe
appearanceofmoreandmorearticlesonthesubject,andevenspecializedvolumesonthe
conjunctionofecocriticismandethnicliterature,suchasJoniAdamsonandScottSlovic,eds.,
EthnicityandEcocriticism,specialissue,MELUS34,no.2(2009).SeealsoJessBenito,Ana
Manzanas,andBegoaSimal,OfaMagicalNature:TheEnvironmentalUnconscious,in
UncertainMirrors:MagicalRealismsinUSEthnicLiteratures(Amsterdam:Rodopi,2009),193
237.
3
LeoMarx,TheMachineintheGarden:TechnologyandthePastoralIdealinAmerica(London:
OxfordUniversityPress,1964);andKarenTeiYamashita,ThroughtheArcoftheRainForest
(Minneapolis:CoffeeHousePress,1990).
4
CheryllGlotfelty,Introduction:LiteraryStudiesinanAgeofEnvironmentalCrisis,inThe
EcocriticismReader:LandmarksinLiteraryEcology,ed.CheryllGlotfeltyandHaroldFromm
(Athens:UniversityofGeorgiaPress,1996),xix.
5
LawrenceBuell,TheFutureofEnvironmentalCriticism:EnvironmentalCrisisandLiterary
Imagination(Oxford:Blackwell,2005),430.
6
LaurenceCoupe,ed.,TheGreenStudiesReader:FromRomanticismtoEcocriticism(London:
Routledge,2000),302.
7
AdamRome,GiveEarthaChance:TheEnvironmentalMovementandtheSixties,Journal
ofAmericanHistory90,no.2(2003):527.
8
RachelCarson,SilentSpring(1962;repr.,NewYork:Mariner,2002).
9
Marx,MachineintheGarden;RaymondWilliams,TheCountryandtheCity(Oxford:Oxford
UniversityPress,1975);andJosephW.Meeker,TheComedyofSurvival:LiteraryEcologyanda
PlayEthic,3rded.(1974;repr.,Tucson:UniversityofArizonaPress,1997).
18
10
ThelastdecadehaswitnessedtheproliferationofASLEtypeorganizationsaroundthe
world,suchastheEuropeanAssociationfortheStudyofLiterature,Cultureandthe
Environment(EASLCE,2007),theAssociationforLiterature,Environment,andCulturein
Canada(ALECC,2007),etc.,whilebranchesofASLEhaveappearedincountriessuchasJapan
(1994),theUK(1999),Korea(2001),AustraliaandNewZealand(2005),India(ASLEIndia,
renamedOSLEin2006),andTaiwan(2008).
11
LawrenceBuell,TheEnvironmentalImagination:Thoreau,NatureWriting,andtheFormation
ofAmericanCulture(Cambridge,MA:BelknapPressofHarvardUniversityPress,1995);and
GlotfeltyandFromm,EcocriticismReader.
12
SeeGlenA.Love,EcocriticismandScience:TowardConsilience?NewLiteraryHistory30,
no.3(1999):56176;DanaPhillips,Ecocriticism,LiteraryTheory,andtheTruthofEcology,
NewLiteraryHistory30,no.3(1999):577602;andT.V.Reed,TowardanEnvironmental
JusticeEcocriticism,inTheEnvironmentalJusticeReader:Politics,Poetics,andPedagogy,ed.
JoniAdamson,MeiMeiEvans,andRachelStein(Tucson:UniversityofArizonaPress,2002),
14562.
13
ComparethesomewhatbleakpanoramadrawnbyCheryllGlotfeltyatthebeginningofher
introductiontoTheEcocriticismReader,especiallythedisparitysheobservedbetweenthe
mediaattentiontotheenvironmentalcrisisandthetotalneglectonthepartofliterarycritics
(Glotfelty,Introduction,xvi),withthemoreoptimistic,thoughstillnottriumphant,viewof
ecofeminismofferedbyGretaGaardandPatrickD.Murphytwoyearslater,inEcofeminist
LiteraryCriticism:Inthe1990secofeminismisfinallymakingitselffeltinliterarystudies.
GretaGaardandPatrickD.Murphy,introductiontoEcofeministLiteraryCriticism:Theory,
Interpretation,Pedagogy,ed.GaardandMurphy(Urbana:UniversityofIllinoisPress,1998),5.
Speakingfromamidposition,LawrenceBuellcontendsthat,althoughthedebatearound
environmentalissues,mostpoignantlyour(humans)relationshiptoNature,isasoldasthe
BookofGenesis,ecocriticismisstillstrugglingforvisibilityandrecognitioninacademiccircles
(Buell,FutureofEnvironmentalCriticism,12).
14
TimothyMorton,EcologyWithoutNature:RethinkingEnvironmentalAesthetics(Cambridge,
MA:HarvardUniversityPress,2007),1.
15
LawrenceBuell,GreenDisputes:Nature,Culture,American(ist)Theory,inNatures
NationRevisited:AmericanConceptsofNaturefromWondertoEcologicalCrisis,ed.HansBak
andWalterHlbling(Amsterdam:VUUniversityPress,2003),43;andDavidMazel,American
LiteraryEnvironmentalism(Athens:UniversityofGeorgiaPress,2000),187.
16
LeoMarx,ThePanderingLandscape:OnAmericanNatureasIllusion,inBakandHlbling,
NaturesNationRevisited,30.
17
RaymondWilliams,IdeasofNature,inTheCulturalStudiesReader,3rded.,ed.Simon
During(London:Routledge,2007),28486.Notonlythenatureofnaturebutalsoits
apparentuniquenesshavebeenproblematizedinrecentcriticism.InthepolemicalWarof
theWorlds,BrunoLatourmaintainsthattheemergenceofapostmodernmultinaturalism
(ViveirosdeCastro)hasalreadyreplacedthemononaturalismthathadprovidedthe
19
bedrockformodernistconfidence.SeeBrunoLatour,WaroftheWorlds:WhataboutPeace?
(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,2002).
18
ForecocriticssuchasGlotfelty,thetermenvironmenthaspejorative,anthropocentric
anddualisticconnotations,whereastheprefixecosuggestspositiveimagesof
interdependentcommunities,integratedsystems(Glotfelty,Introduction,xx).However,
IdoagreewithBuellsreasonsforfavoringthetermenvironmentalcriticism,evenif
ecocriticismcontinuestobethemostwidespreadlabel.
19
Buell,FutureofEnvironmentalCriticism,12,21,82,9092.Myunderstandingoftheterm
globalcoincideswithRobertP.MarzecsdefinitioninAnEcologicalandPostcolonialStudy
ofLiterature:thecomplexofcontemporarytransnationalforcesofcapitalandculture
governedbyanendeavortohomogenizeandreducedifferenceanddistance,anevolving
networkfirstlaiddownintheeighteenth,nineteenthcenturieswiththedevelopmentofthe
Dutch,French,andspecificallyBritishEmpires.RobertP.Marzec,AnEcologicaland
PostcolonialStudyofLiterature:FromDanielDefoetoSalmanRushdie(NewYork:Palgrave
Macmillan,2007),25.Foraninterestingexplorationofthecontrastbetweenarestrictive,
biasedglobalistweandamoreinspiringbrandofromanticuniversalism,asappliedto
YamashitasTropicofOrange,seeSueImLee,WeAreNottheWorld:GlobalVillage,
Universalism,andKarenTeiYamashitasTropicofOrange,MFS:ModernFictionStudies53,no.
3(2007):50127.
20
SvenBirkerts,OnlyGodCanMakeaTree:TheJoysandSorrowsofEcocriticism,Boston
BookReview3.1(1996):6,quotedinArmbrusterandWallace,BeyondNatureWriting,3.
21
Phillips,Ecocriticism,586.
22
StevenRosendale,Introduction:ExtendingEcocriticism,inTheGreeningofLiterary
Scholarship:Literature,Theory,andtheEnvironment,ed.StevenRosendale(IowaCity:
UniversityofIowaPress,2002),xxvii.
23
ArmbrusterandWallace,BeyondNatureWriting,34.
24
Morton,EcologyWithoutNature,5.
25
26
Buell,FutureofEnvironmentalCriticism,2122.Ecocentrismupholdsthebeliefthatour
planetisaninterconnectedcommunitywithnoboundariesbetweensentientand
nonsentientbeings,humansandnonhumans,sincewealldependononeanother.Buell
definesecocentrismasthebeliefthattheinterestoftheecospheremustoverridethatof
theinterestofindividualspecies,incontradistinctionwithanthropocentrism(137).
27
In2002,abookdefinitivelylaunchedthequestionofecojustice:TheEnvironmentalJustice
Reader:Politics,Poetics,andPedagogy,editedbyJoniAdamson,MeiMeiEvans,andRachel
Stein.Intheirgroundbreakingintroduction,theeditorsdefinedenvironmentaljusticeasthe
rightofallpeopletoshareequallyinthebenefitsbestowedbyahealthyenvironment,while
20
theenvironmentwouldencompassallthoseplacesinwhichwelive,work,play,and
worship(Adamson,Evans,andStein,EnvironmentalJusticeReader,1).
28
Buell,FutureofEnvironmentalCriticism,130.
29
SeeUrsulaK.Heise,EcocriticismandtheTransnationalTurninAmericanStudies,
AmericanLiteraryHistory20,no.12(2008):381404.
30
Admittedly,thesegraphicmodelsdosoinasomewhatsimplifiedmannerthatrisksbeing
misunderstoodforarenewedtypeofbinarythinking.Itcannotbesufficientlyemphasized
that,despitetheprecisecontoursofthecubemetaphor,herewearenotengaginginclear
cutdichotomies,butinlinessignifyingacontinuum,linescreatingamesh,afluid
crisscrossingspace,wherethedifferentpositionsinterpenetrateeachother,asbefitsthe
ecocritical,relationalapproachofthisarticle.
31
GregGarrard,Ecocriticism(NewYork:Routledge,2004),178.
32
JosephW.Meeker,FieldsofDangerandtheWildernessofWisdom,NorthAmerican
Review263,no.1(1978):71,quotedinLove,EcocriticismandScience,561.
33
BasarabNicolescu,TransdisciplinarityasMethodologicalFrameworkforGoingBeyond
theScienceReligionDebate,GlobalSpiral,May24,2007,
http://www.metanexus.net/magazine/tabid/68/id/10013/Default.aspx.
34
SeeHeise,EcocriticismandtheTransnationalTurn,38387;andUrsulaK.Heise,Senseof
PlaceandSenseofPlanet:TheEnvironmentalImaginationoftheGlobal(NewYork:Oxford
UniversityPress,2008),2849.
35
Heise,EcocriticismandtheTransnationalTurn,386.
36
Rosendale,Introduction,xvi.
37
Anexampleoftheincreasingpresenceofthetransnationalapproachcanbefoundin
PatrickD.Murphy,EcocriticalExplorationsinLiteraryandCulturalStudies:Fences,Boundaries,
andFields(Lanham,MD:LexingtonBooks,2009),whicharguesinfavorofatransnational
ecocriticaltheorythatshouldtransect,thatis,cutacrossthelimitationsofnational
perspectivesandboundaries(63;see6376).
38
SeeBillMcKibben,TheEndofNature(NewYork:RandomHouse,1989);ortheshorter
piecebyecologistErleEllis,OpEd:StopTryingtoSavethePlanet,WiredMagazine,May6,
2009,http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/ftfellis1/.SeealsoCynthiaDeitering,
ThePostnaturalNovel:ToxicConsciousnessinFictionofthe1980s,inGlotfeltyandFromm,
EcocriticismReader,196203;andMazel,AmericanLiteraryEnvironmentalism,34,15760.
39
Garrard,Ecocriticism,179.
40
Morton,EcologyWithoutNature,12.
41
Love,EcocriticismandScience,569.
21
42
Thenovelalsohasabundantexamplesoftheruralurbandivide.Theblendingofnatural
andurbanrealms,forinstance,canbeillustratedthroughtheflourishingpigeonbusiness
thatpunctuatesthenovel.Thepigeonprovidesagoodillustrationoftheintersectionofthe
naturalandtheurban,sinceitistheepitomeoftheurbanbird.
43
Yamashita,ThroughtheArc,99.
44
Althoughitcanhardlybeconsiderednaturewritinginthetraditionalsense,Throughthe
ArcoftheRainForesthasalsobeenreadassuch,specificallyasanallegoryofthenatural
cycleoftherainforest.SeeToshiIshihara,KarenTeiYamashitasThroughtheArcoftheRain
Forest:NaturesTextasPilgrimage,StudiesinAmericanLiterature,TheAmericanLiterature
SocietyofJapan31(1997):5977.
45
ThenarratingballcanbeliterallyandfigurativelylinkedtotheMataco,butitcanalsobe
construedasareplicaofthelargerballthatisourplanet.Foraninsightfulanalysisoftheball
asnarratorandofYamashitasnarrativestrategies,seeCarolineRody,ImpossibleVoices:
EthnicPostmodernNarrationinToniMorrisonsJazzandKarenTeiYamashitasThroughthe
ArcoftheRainForest,ContemporaryLiterature41,no.4(2000):61841.InLocalRockand
GlobalPlastic,Heisealsoaddressestheconsequencesofthechoiceofanonhumannarrator.
SeeUrsulaK.Heise,LocalRockandGlobalPlastic:WorldEcologyandtheExperienceof
Place,ComparativeLiteratureStudies41,no.1(2004):14749.Forareadingoftheballs
ambiguousimport,seeBenito,Manzanas,andSimal,OfaMagicalNature,21517.Finally,
foraninterpretationoftheballasthememoryofmodernityandbeyond,seeRobertWess,
TerministicScreensandEcologicalFoundations:ABurkeanPerspectiveonYamashitas
ThroughtheArcoftheRainForest,InterdisciplinaryLiteraryStudies7,no.1(2005):11213.
46
AccordingtotheecologicaltheoryputforwardbyEllisandRamankutty,weshouldfavor
thetermanthropogenicbiomesoranthromes,insteadofjustbiomes,inorderto
describetheterrestrialbiosphereinitscontemporary,humanalteredform,usingglobal
ecosystemunitsdefinedbyglobalpatternsofsustaineddirecthumaninteractionwith
ecosystems,offeringanewwayforwardforecologicalresearchandeducation.ErleC.Ellis
andNavinRamankutty,PuttingPeopleintheMap:AnthropogenicBiomesoftheWorld,
FrontiersinEcologyandtheEnvironment6,no.8(2008):43947.
47
48
MollyWallace,ABizarreEcology:TheNatureofDenaturedNature,ISLE7,no.2(2000):
149.Fortheauthor,YamashitasnovelmanagestosynthesizethekindofMarxistcritiqueof
postmodernismofferedbyJamesonwiththekindofinterrogationofthenature/culture
binaryofferedbyLatour(146).
49
Heise,LocalRockandGlobalPlastic,127.
50
51
FredricJameson,TheSeedsofTime(NewYork:ColumbiaUniversityPress,1994),46,
quotedinWallace,ABizarreEcology,138.Forastudyofthewayssuchanantinomyis
22
overcome,seeWallace,ABizarreEcology;foraBurkeaninflectiontoWallacesdiscussion,
seeWess,TerministicScreens.
52
Marx,MachineintheGarden,242.
53
54
Williams,IdeasofNature,294.
55
Thechangingnatureofthetermsisfullydocumented.Williamscommentsonhowwhat
wasnaturalcouldbereadinratherdisparateways:inapositiveway,asablessedstateof
innocence,orinanegativeone,asthemerebeastthatwoulddragusintosin(290).
However,thefallacyofnatureaspure,pristine,separatefrommen(293),canbetraced
totheeighteenthandnineteenthcenturies,whennaturecametomeanallthatwasnot
touchedbyman,spoiltbyman:natureasthelonelyplaces,thewilderness(291).
56
InThroughtheArcoftheRainForest,forinstance,thereisanexplicitreferencetothe
sweatofhumanlabormixingwiththeforest(Yamashita,ThroughtheArc,145).
57
Williams,IdeasofNature,29697.
58
59
Forananalysisoftheconjunctionofmagic(al)realismandecocriticism,seeBenito,
Manzanas,andSimal,OfaMagicalNature.
60
61
Here,ThroughtheArcoftheRainForestclearlyechoesThomasPynchonsGravitysRainbow,
whichalsofeaturesanincrediblymalleableplasticcalledImipolexG,ahomagethatboththe
titleofYamashitasnovelandthenameofthetransnationalcorporationchosen(GGG)
seemtoconfirm.IamhighlyindebtedtoProfessorJosListeNoyaforthisinsight.
62
Heise,LocalRockandGlobalPlastic,14445.
63
JinqiLing,ForgingaNorthSouthPerspective:NikkeiMigrationinKarenTeiYamashitas
Novels,AmerasiaJournal32,no.3(2006):10.SeealsoWess,TerministicScreens,110;and
AimeeBahng,ExtrapolatingTransnationalArcs,ExcavatingImperialLegacies:The
SpeculativeActsofKarenTeiYamashitasThroughtheArcoftheRainForest,MELUS33,no.
4(2008):12344.
64
Marx,MachineintheGarden,1116.
65
66
TherainforestparkinglothasalsomodifiedthecustomsandattireofsomeAmazonian
Indians,whosportreflectivematerialsinthemasks,headpiecesandnecklacesthanksto
theoldmirrorsfromthecarandplanecemetery(100).
67
Althoughthegardenhasbeenreadbothaswildernessorasmiddlelandscape,thelatter
ismorecommon.ThisambiguityisquiteevidentinRobertBeverleysconceptionofthe
23
garden,asdisplayedinhisHistoryandPresentStateofVirginia(1705).AccordingtoMarx,
Beverleywaversbetweentwodifferentgardenmetaphors:awild,primitive,orpre
lapsarianEden...,andacultivatedgardenembracingvaluesnotunlikethoserepresented
bytheclassicVirgilianpasture(Marx,MachineintheGarden,87).Significantly,thegarden
imaginedasmiddlelandscapehasbeencommonlyreadasthekeytodismantlingthenature
culturedivide,sinceitmediatesbetweenthehumanandthenaturalwithoutanyclaimsfor
purity.LouisH.PalmerIII,ArticulatingtheCyborg:AnImpureModelforEnvironmental
Revolution,inRosendale,GreeningofLiteraryScholarship,168.Forcontemporarytheories
advocatingthegardensolution,seePalmer,ArticulatingtheCyborg,16869.
68
Although,ina2007interview,HeisedoubtswhetherwecanconsiderYamashitaanAsian
AmericanorevenanAmericanwriter(favoringtheLatinAmericanlabelinstead,atleast
forthisfirstnovel),YamashitaherselfhasrecentlyvoicedherpreferenceforAsianAmerican
and,morespecifically,JapaneseAmericanselfidentification:IcallmyselfaJapanese
Americanwriter.TeHsingShan,InterviewwithKarenTeiYamashita,AmerasiaJournal32,
no.3(2006):125.EvenmoretellingisRachelLeesgroundingofKazumasa,theJapanese
withtheball,intheAsianAmericanmasternarrativeoftherailroadworker,eventhoughshe
problematicallyconflatesaChineseimmigranticonwithaJapaneseimmigrant.SeeRachel
Lee,AsianAmericanCulturalProductioninAsianPacificPerspective,boundary226,no.2
(1999):24246.
69
SeeSauLingCynthiaWong,DenationalizationReconsidered:AsianAmericanCultural
CriticismataTheoreticalCrossroads,AmerasiaJournal21,no.12(1995):127.
70
Andyet,Koshyclaims,whilecapitalseemstohavenofrontiers,thusconfirmingthe
deterritorializationinherentinglobaleconomy,politicalandlegalsystems,mostnotably
humanandworkersrights,stillseemunabletotranscendtraditionalnationalboundaries.
SeeSusanKoshy,ThePostmodernSubaltern:GlobalizationTheoryandtheSubjectofEthnic,
Area,andPostcolonialStudies,inMinorTransnationalism,ed.FranoiseLionnetandShumei
Shih(Durham,NC:DukeUniversityPress,2005),10931.Inabookprimarilyconcernedwith
theimpactoftheenclosuremovementonourontologicalunderstandingofland(22),
RobertMarzecgoesfurtherinhisindictmentoftransnationalcapitalism,focusingprimarily
onhowsuchaglobalizedeconomicsystemdeterritorializesthesingularityofterritories
(Marzec,EcologicalandPostcolonialStudy,116).EchoingDeleuzeandGuattari,hecontends
thatcapitalcanbegrafteduponanyterritory,anduponanydifferencegeneratedwithina
particularterritory,thusdeterritorializ[ing]whatwasonceintrinsicorpeculiartoa
territory,placingitwithintheuniversalflowoftheglobaleconomy(23).Forstudiesof
deterritorializationinYamashitaswork,seeHeise,LocalRockandGlobalPlastic;Heise,
EcocriticismandtheTransnationalTurn;Heise,SenseofPlace;andShuchingChen,Magic
CapitalismandMelodramaticImaginationProducingLocalityandReconstructingAsian
EthnicityinKarenTeiYamashitasThroughtheArcoftheRainForest,EurAmerica34,no.4
(2004):587625.Inthispostnationalscenario,alternativenotions,suchasPatrickMurphys
allonationalformations,havebeensuggestedinordertocritiqueandtotallydispensewith
thenationstate.SeePatrickD.Murphy,GroundingAnothernessandAnswerabilitythrough
AllonationalEcoliteratureFormations,inNatureinLiteraryandCulturalStudies:Transatlantic
24
ConversationsonEcocriticism,ed.CatrinGersdorfandSylviaMayer(NewYork:Rodopi,2006):
41734.
71
Koshy,PostmodernSubaltern,111,117.
72
SeeShelleyFisherFishkin,CrossroadsofCultures:TheTransnationalTurninAmerican
StudiesPresidentialAddresstotheAmericanStudiesAssociation,November12,2004,
AmericanQuarterly57,no.1(2005):1757.Foraninterestingproposalofaphilosophyof
transnationalism,seeLauraDoyle,TowardaPhilosophyofTransnationalism,Journalof
TransnationalAmericanStudies1,no.1(2009),http://escholarship.org/uc/item/9vr1k8hk.
73
AsSueImLeenotes,Yamashitahaspaidagreatdealofattentiontothedeterritorializing
effectsofglobalizationthroughoutherliterarycareer.Inherbooksshehasexploredthe
transformationof(ethnic)identities,bycelebrat[ing]theporouscategoriesofidentities
emergingfromthephenomenaofglobalizationanddelvingintothewaysinwhichthe
unmooringofidentitiesandaffiliationstranslateintoformationsofnewmoorings(Lee,
WeAreNottheWorld,503).
74
DonnaHaraway,ACyborgManifesto,inDuring,CulturalStudiesReader,315,317.
75
76
Thesedeadmachinesare,atthesametime,deathmachines.Ithankthearticlereviewers
forpointingthisouttome.
77
KarenTeiYamashita,TropicofOrange(Minneapolis:CoffeeHousePress,1997).
78
Lee,WeAreNottheWorld,502.
79
MuchlikecarshouseimprovisedgardensinYamashitasTropicofOrange.
25

Junkyard Yamashita

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Since the emergence of environmental criticism as a field of literary and cultural

Nature has traditionally conjured up images of more or less unspoiled

As Glen A. Love explains in Ecocriticism and Science: Toward Consilience? one

In Ecocriticism and the Transnational Turn in American Studies, and in Sense of

examples of the reworking of the culturenature divide.42Foremost among these

out by something, by some invisible, voracious and now

To start with, Yamashitas chosen location is a jungle, not a garden, a middle

comment on the byproducts of consumerist capitalism. In this postmodern,

From Kazumasas metaphorical little planet in ThroughtheArcoftheRainForest to

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