Counteracting the Hegemonic Discourse of “America”: Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats

Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats (1998) is in a sense a further projection of what Karen Yamashita has shown through Tropic of Orange. Eschewing the existing dominant paradigms and revising the white-dominant “American” identity, Ozeki in My Year of Meats investigates how the media has contributed to fortifying the white-centered image of “America” and its hierarchical value system. As a way of challenging the white middle-class centered rhetoric of “America” reproduced by the media, Ozeki actively uses the media in dismantling the media-built myth of “America,” and she seeks to shift the focus from the white speculative gaze towards the racially, culturally, and sexually marginalized and underrepresented groups in the United States.