A Study Of Contemporary Western Ecocriticism

Ecocriticism is a new school of literary criticism in response to severe ecological problems starting from the end of 20 th century.On the basis of ecological holism,ecocriticism is the study devoted to exploring the social and historical cultural roots behind the ecological crisis,and discussing the relationship between literature and nature,as well as between man and nature in the material world from the dimensions of material,place,race,gender and class,showing its ethical standpoint of care for man and nature,and an aesthetic standard of the dynamic balance of ecosystem and the harmonious development of man and nature.As a new emerging trend of literary criticism in the realistic context of ecological crisis and globalization,ecocriticism not only possesses the traditional function of literary criticism,but also shows its unique function of realistic criticism with sharp perception of practical problems and a strong sense of mission.The modern civilization in the background of globalization,on the one hand,has promoted the development of life science and increased our knowledge about life and nature.However,on the other,with the development of modern industry,human beings are preoccupied with the utilization of modern technology to satisfy their economic interests and their pursuit of material comforts.Nature is manipulated and almost exhausted as the resources for social development.Nature thus began to take its revenge on man in a decisive way,such as sand storms,global warming and chemical toxin contamination.Risks with the tide of globalization also exert global influence.The realistic context of ecological crisis has sparked a lot of eco-conscious passion for literary creation.Ecological crisis in reality has inspired the passion for literary creation with ecological consciousness,and ecological literature has become an important category calling for serious studies in contemporary literature.Ecocriticism guides the public to interpret ecological literature critically so as to develop a sense of ecological crisis,and with commitment to cultural reflection,hold an ecological stance.Ecocriticism extends the study of literary criticism from human society to the whole ecology by exploring a natural dimension.Critics call for the presence of nature and listen to its voice uttered in ecological crisis.Emerging in the 1970 s,ecocriticism in the West has since been gaining great theoretical achievements,forming a systematic theoretical system.Researches on ecocriticism started more than 20 years later in China than in the West.It is necessary to critically interpret and absorb the excellent achievements of western ecocriticism to construct a theoretical system of ecocriticism with local characteristics.This thesis makes a systematic review of the rise and development of western ecocriticism,and attempts to construct a theory of ecocriticism with situated knowledge by highlighting three foci: material agency,the construction of local discourse in global discourse,and ecofeminism.The first is to focus on the material agency.The discovery of material agency in the fourth wave of ecocriticism proposes a new world view for us in ecological anxiety to reflect on our relationship with nature.There are three key points about material agency.First,human corporeality and nonhuman nature are materially co-constitutive in the ontological cognition of microscopic particles.Second,there are human agents and non-human agents in nature.Matters,non-human agents,are capable of creating meanings,have narrative power,and participate in the construction of discourse.All forms of existence are on the move.Matters result from the on-going intra-actions of material and discursive practices and agencies.Reconstruction of human identity is an important task of ecocriticism.Human identity needs to be reconstructed on the premise of respecting different existences.Both the reconstruction of human identity and the construction of ecocriticism theory should be based on the current historical context,and meanwhile construction is a process of constant revision with the development of history.The second focus is the construction of local discourse in the background of globalization.In the era of globalization,to handle the problem of survival and development needs to clarify the dialectical relationship between local and global conditions.In the context of globalization,places are constantly endowed with new meanings,and local boundaries are constantly being crossed.Ecocriticism needs both global perspective and local perspective to analyze ecological problems with situated knowledge.In global risk scenarios,people in different places need to respect cultural differences respectively,strengthen dialogue,enhance understanding and share risks.The third focus is ecofeminist criticism.Feminist academic practice is more inclusive,and breaks the traditional thinking mode of western philosophy.Therefore,in the practice of social activities and theoretical construction,ecofeminist criticism shows a more diversified perspective,connects the marginalized others,and analyzes the problems of domination and oppression from a broader perspective.Ecofeminist criticism provides a new theoretical framework for us to contextualize the subject identity formation,and to interpret the narrative of agents in material world resistance to social oppression,environmental injustice and colonization of the unified identity.This paper tries to be innovative in the following three aspects: First,the thesis makes a literature review of western ecocriticism from multidisciplinary perspectives,pays attention to the dialogue with western ecocriticism discourse,and critically evaluates the western theoretical achievements.Second,the discovery of material agency is the core and the latest achievement of the fourth wave of ecocriticism.This thesis highlights the material agency theory,and maintains that material agency theory is of great significance to the anti-colonialism in the context of globalization,to the reconstruction of the subject's identity based on the specific situation,and to the practice of ecological civilization in China.Third,theoretical construction of ecocriticism is a continuous process on the premise of respect for individual differences.In addition to the introduction,conclusion and appendix,there are four chapters in the thesis.The introduction part explains the reason of the topic,the current situation of ecocriticism researches,the three foci in the thesis,and the research methods and innovations.The first chapter introduces the concept of ecocriticism,the social background of its rise,the four waves it has gone through,and the ideological origin in philosophy and literature to make a general review of the development of ecocriticism.The second chapter studies the material turn in the fourth wave of ecocriticism.This chapter first expounds the research category,theoretical connotation and basic framework of material ecocriticism,and points out that the discovery of material agency is the core of material ecocriticism.Then the genealogy of material ecocriticism is traced to probe into the influence of postmodernism and new materialism on the cognition of material agency.Finally,this chapter explores the positive role of material agency from the perspective of materiality,discourse construction and human identity reconstruction.The third chapter focuses on the relationship between local and global conditions,and further expounds that in the context of globalization ecocriticism needs a dual vision of what is called glocalization.This chapter explains the connotation and characteristics of place and place attachment,and compares the local and global perspectives of some critics such as Lawrence Boyle,Ursula K.Hayes and Tom Lynch.Moreover,ecocriticism develops dialogues between environmentalism,environmental justice,idyllic and other schools and finally discusses how to deal with the global risk scenarios.Chapter four reveals the social oppression and colonial behavior behind ecological problems from the perspective of feminist ecocriticism.This chapter expounds the development process from ecofeminism to feminist ecocriticism,and carries out active dialogues between ecofeminism and various schools of feminism,deep ecology and social ecology.Ecofernalism expresses its concern about other oppressors such as women and nature.Influenced by neo-materialism,post-modern and post-human thoughts,feminist ecocriticism interprets ecological disaster as the result of natural agency and the narrative of natural agent's resistance to human exploitation.The fifth part is the conclusion of the whole thesis,and holds the view that ecocriticism needs wider and deeper academic dialogues from the global perspective,as well as an ongoing theoretical reconstruction on account of the actual context.The appendix interprets the Chinese narrative texts in ecocriticism from the perspective of text acceptance,which can be regarded as the practice of text interpretation from the perspective of ecocriticism.