A Study Of Willa Cather's Novels From The Perspective Of Ecofeminist Literary Criticism

As is known to all, since the industrial revolution, the rapid development ofscience and technology and modern industrial civilization as well as the rapid growthof material wealth have changed human life space and living conditionsfundamentally. However, as the human's domination and transformation of nature isbecoming increasingly powerful, the harmonious relationship between man and manand human and nature is gradually degrading into separation and conflict,consequently making the human have to face the outcome of ecologicalenvironmental deterioration. As early as the latter half of the 20th century, the US-ledwestern industrialized countries have felt the pressure of environment, for the firsttime in history, facing the threat of environmental crisis and having to think of socialproduction mode and ideological and cultural roots which caused the environmentalcrisis. In this kind of cultural atmosphere, the scholars in literary research field havegradually developed such an ecological thinking, so it is inevitable for the emergenceof ecocriticism. Opening ecological criticism unprecedentedly, the American scholarsin the field of literature research blazed new trials in ecological perspective intoliterary research fields, trying to make literature research with the method ofecocriticism, that is, to be engaged in literature research in the interdisciplinary visionof literature and ecology. During the 1990s, ecofeminist literary criticism was finallyestablished. Ecofeminist literary criticism directly points to androcentrism, exposingand criticizing its dual control and derogation both to nature and women, exploringecological value, literary characteristics and aesthetic connotation in female naturalwritings, as well as comparing the differences of male and female natural writings.Thus, ecofeminist literary criticism has become a miracle in literary criticism field. The review and re-evaluation of traditional literature is a major task ofecofeminist literary criticism. Its immediate goal is to make impairment judgment toliterature classic works contrary to ecological ideas and meanwhile makeimprovement evaluation to those literary works which contain important ecologicalthoughts, but fail to get reader's attention. The ultimate goal is to promote academia tomake integrate reassessment and reconstruction of the history of literature, leadingpeople to establish an ecological literature concept, literature standard and literatureinterest. Willa Cather is one of the outstanding female writers to be reevaluated.Willa Cather is a very famous American female writer in the first half of the 20thcentury. Her novels full of enthusiasm praise dogged entrepreneurship and unyieldingand resolute characters of the pioneers in the western U. S. in a graceful style. Foryears, many critics have analyzed and explained Cather's works from multipleperspectives, such as the gender, national fusion, praise for the pioneer spirit andtechniques of writing, etc. However, while human race are faced with seriousecological crisis and global ecological environment is deteriorating rapidly, criticsbegin to pay more and more attention to the ecological ideas contained in Cather'sworks. So the study on her works from the perspective of ecocriticism is receivinggreat concern.Based on relevant research findings domestically and abroad, with the dialecticalmaterialism, historical materialism and view of nature advocated by Marxistphilosophy as a guiding ideology, with the ecological knowledge as a scientific proof,with the environmental morals promoted by environmental ethics as a value support,and with the aesthetic principles in ecological aesthetics as an aesthetic standard, thethesis attempts to exhibit an evolution research on Willa Cather's classic fictions fromthe perspective of ecofeminist literary criticism and probe into the characteristics anddevelopment track of three creation periods of Cather, aiming at reflecting uponideological and cultural roots of the environmental crisis, arousing ecologicalconsciousness of all mankind and having a more thorough and comprehensive graspof the important task of ecological culture construction.This thesis is composed of the introduction, main body and conclusion. The introduction firstly summarizes the value of the topic, the current situation ofstudy on Willa Cather and her works both domestically and abroad and the researchmethods to be used. And then the part makes a comment on ecofeminist literarycriticism, including the origin of ecofeminist criticism, the ecofeminist literature flow,the connotation and research horizon of ecofeminist literary criticism.The authorthinks the biggest contribution made by ecofeminist literary criticism lies in that it hasbrought literature research brand-new concepts—ecological philosophy, ecologicalaesthetics and ecological literature and endowed literary criticism with naturalmission and social mission expected to assume.The main body is divided into five chapters.Chapter One briefly introduces Willa Cather and her creative characteristics andespecially analyzes the factors which have produced a decisive role in the formationof Cather's creative view.Chapter Two specifically discusses the ecological consciousness embodied inWilla Cather's early classic works, O Pioneers! and My Antonia. Considering the twonovels to be a whole, the thesis argues that as early as a century ago, Cather did reflectthe theme advocated by current ecofeminism in her novels, in addition to pragmaticpioneer spirit the past critics often focused on. In view of the fact that both womenand land possess great productivity and creativity and female culture ideas proposedby ecofeminism, such as interdependence, mutual care, etc. play an important role inthe construction of harmonious life, the chapter aims to explore Cather's effort at thedeconstruction of androcentrism and her appeal for equality and mutual understandingbetween human and nature on the one hand and between man and women on the otherhand.A Lost Lady and The Professor's House are representative novels in the middleperiod of Cather's literary career. With ecological holistic concept, contact idea,harmonious view as the guiding ideology, Chapter Three expounds the paradise lostresulting from industrial civilization constructed by Cather in the two novels. In themiddle period of her creation, Cather obviously changed her creation tendency.Dissolving idealistic illusions, Cather expressed her anxiety and indignation towards people's spiritual transformation under commercial culture shock, her disappointmenttowards the situation that the old way of life was being eroded and the traditionalvalues were falling into decay and her reminiscence of the vanishing good times.Meanwhile, Cather made a lamentable remark——"the world broke in two in 1922 orthereabouts".Chapter Four focuses on the analysis of ecological worlds Cather meticulouslyconstructed in her late masterpieces, Death Comes for the Archbishop and NeighborRosicky, where human lived harmoniously with nature and men coexisted withwomen, revealing a green life road and providing a good example for humanity tobuild ideal home of poetic dwelling on earth. Via the past pioneer spirit, Cathersucceeded in finding a method to join up that world which ever split into two partsonce again.Chapter Five makes a concentrated exploration of ecological aesthetics embodiedin Cather's novels. Endowed with a strong ecofeminist consciousness, Cather's novelscontain intense and multiple ecological cultural values, but as a self-sufficient system,her works have many characteristics very different from other cultural morphologyand have specific aesthetic values which exist independent of other externalconditions. In author's opinion, Cather focuses on the research on the relationshipbetween literature and nature and man and nature, not only with ecological holism asits philosophy guidance, but also with the main principles of ecological aesthetics asits aesthetics guidance.The conclusion gives a general evaluation of Willa Cather and her works andsummarizes the significance of the evolution research on Cather and her novels fromthe perspective of ecofeminist literary criticism.The author's active attempt at the evolution research on Willa Cather's novelsfrom the perspective of ecofeminist literary criticism has strong realistic meaning andprofound historical significance. It provides us with an opportunity to makecomprehensive understanding of Cather's ecological view and makes it possible forlater readers to have a broad ecological thinking space. Meanwhile, it helps us toreflect on how the human race maintain harmony with nature, how to construct a kind of new complementary and coexistent social relation between two genders and how topromote ideological and cultural transformation of mankind, striving to set up anUtopia which follows the ecological holism and feminism principle.