Ha Jin’s Ecocritical Irony in the Stylistic Analysis of the Personal Pronouns in “A Tiger Fighter is Hard to Find”

Isabella Marinaro

doi:10.30687/tol/2499-5975/2020/22/023

Abstract

This paper aims at showing how stylistics and ecocriticism, both being strongly ‘centripetal’ and ‘interdisciplinary’ fields, can cooperate in the exploration of a literary text. This is the case of a short story written by the Chinese-American writer Ha Jin. Also thanks to the help of the digital analysis, the paper mainly focuses on the stylistic analysis of the personal pronouns and of the narrator’s point of view to show the stinging and subversive irony which pervades the narration of the vicissitudes of a Chinese TV film crew who is asked to shoot a scene where a muscular hero has to fight bare-handed against a real Siberian tiger. The analysis also aims to show how the story becomes the opportunity for the writer to depict the narrow frame of mind of the blind dictatorship of his homeland and its deplorable consequences on both humans and animals. Thus, the whole exploration, in the end, reveals the ecocritical lens through which Ha Jin narrates the story.

Highlights

Isabella Marinaro Ha Jin’s Ecocritical Irony in “A Tiger Fighter is Hard to Find”In his attempt to describe ecocriticism,1 Warren argues that this discipline is strong when it becomes ‘interdisciplinary’: “interdisciplinary focus suggests that new ways of knowing can emerge from disciplinary crossing” (Warren 2010, 771-2)
An attempt has been made to carry out a stylistic analysis of a short story titled “A Tiger Fighter is Hard to Find”,4 written by the Chinese American writer Ha Jin, in order to provide an ecocritical interpretation of this text
This paper has attempted to employ a stylistic exploration as a method of analysis to emphasise an ecocritical perspective and the writer’s ironic vein in the commentary of a political story which points an accusing finger at the unfortunate consequences of blind dictatorship on both humans and animals and which reduces them both to the position of victims

Summary

Introduction

Isabella Marinaro Ha Jin’s Ecocritical Irony in “A Tiger Fighter is Hard to Find”. In his attempt to describe ecocriticism, Warren argues that this discipline is strong when it becomes ‘interdisciplinary’: “interdisciplinary focus suggests that new ways of knowing can emerge from disciplinary crossing” (Warren 2010, 771-2). Warren further reinforces his argument by adding that “the ecocritical impulse reaches into a host of areas, each of them vibrant with new knowledge, new ideas” (Warren 2010, 772) Such “interdisciplinary focus” seems to be in agreement with contemporary stylistics, as the predominant characteristic of stylistics is that it is a “bridge discipline” (Leech [2008] 2013, 2), that is to say a discipline whose nature is strongly interdisciplinary in its foundations and in its applications (Montini 2020, 9).. An attempt has been made to carry out a stylistic analysis of a short story titled “A Tiger Fighter is Hard to Find”,4 written by the Chinese American writer Ha Jin, in order to provide an ecocritical interpretation of this text. Such reading is reinforced by the contribution of Derrida’s philosophy which criticises the Western anthropocentric view according to which animals are objectified by humans

Brief presentation of the Author

Summary of the Short Story

Analysis

Stylistic Analysis of the Personal Pronouns and the Narrator’s Point of View

Conclusion