An Ecofeminist Reading Of The Golden Cangue And Lady Chatterley's Lover

Both Eileen Chang and D. H. Lawrence are very influential writers in the 20th century. In this thesis, the author rereads Eileen Chang's The Golden Cangue and D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover from the ecofeminist perspective and makes a comparison between them. Ecofeminists argue that the so-called "Oppressive conceptual framework" which contains value hierarchy, dualistic thought and the logic of domination is the root of man's domination over woman and nature. This thinking establishes men's supremacy and the legitimacy of their domination over woman and nature. In this thesis, the author makes text-based analysis and criticizes the "Oppressive conceptual framework" and patriarchy.This paper contains four chapters. The first chapter briefly introduces ecofeminism and makes general reviews of the two great works. With the approach of ecofeminism, the author respectively analyzes the difficult situations of woman and the nature in chapter two and chapter three. In chapter two, the author first probes the identity between woman and nature, and then explores the roots of man's domination upon nature and woman. Chapter three investigates women's bitter experiences in the patriarchal society and criticizes the industrial civilization and the inflation of human desire. In the last chapter of this thesis, a comparison between Connie and Cao Qiqiao is made to explain the causes of their different destinies. As victims of the patriarchal society and witnesses of man's devastation upon the nature, Connie and Qiqiao's different selections lead to different destinies. It is Cao Qiqiao's divorce of the nature that results in her alienation, and Connie's integration with the nature ultimately lead to her liberation from the patriarchal domination. All in all, with social, environmental and cultural values, Lady Chatterley's Lover and The Golden Cangue are significant in enlightening us to establish a harmonious world, where the nature, woman and man are all in healthy relationship and of mutual benefits.