An Ecofeminist Interpretation Of The Grass Is Singing

Being one of the most important post-war writers in English literature, Doris Lessing (1919-) enjoys great reputation for her various literary perspectives and an abundance of works. Among a variety of these works that cover almost all the aspects in 20th century: racialism, communism, feminism, mysticism, modern psychology, etc, the basic themes are politics and the fate of women. Her fiction is deeply autobiographical, much of it emerging out of her experiences in Africa. As an observer as well as eyewitness to the colonial rule in Africa, she reveals the dispossession of black Africans by white colonials, and exposes the sterility of the white culture in South Africa.The Grass Is Singing, the first novel of Doris Lessing, was written before she left Rhodesia and published in 1950 the year she emigrated to England. The book, set in the mid-twentieth century South Africa which is full of patriarchal and colonialist culture, describes the destructive exploitation by British settlers, and the tragic destiny of the blacks, women and the poor white colonists due to racial and gender discrimination and the law of jungle.As far as the novel is concerned, varieties of studies have been centered on the novel and especially the female protagonist-Mary Turner, including an analysis of the reason for her tragedy, a colonialist interpretation of the novel, a feminist criticism of the female image, and a psychological analysis of Mary's inner world. However, the ecological significance implicated in the novel has seldom been mentioned. This novel is consistent with the ecofeminist theory in that both have raised their profound reflection on the relationship between nature and all forms of life, and expressed their care for the ultimate fate of human beings.This thesis aims to reinterpret the book through the viewpoint of ecofeminist criticism, revealing its ecological meaning, the feminist consciousness and the author's profound reflection on the relationship between living things which include human, animals and plants. The adoption of ecofeminist literary criticism has broadened the investigative perspective and helped to gain a more comprehensive understanding of this novel.Chapter One first makes a brief introduction of the main points of ecofeminism and its outlook on nature. And then, with the guide of this theory it will analyze the conflict between the settlers and the South African veld in The Grass Is Singing, and finally points out that it is this conflict between human and nature that has brought the South Africa into an increasingly serious material ecocrisis. Ecofeminism is a social movement, a value system and a practice. Ecofeminists promote a biocentric worldview, respecting nature and all forms of life. They highlight the association of women with nature and earth, and hold that patriarchy is the root cause of human oppression of women and nature. In the novel the white settlers, with the intense desire of conquering everything in the colony, came to South Africa. Their ruthless planting and exploitation destroyed the local ecosystem severely and the British colonial rule was experiencing a serious material ecocrisis.Chapter Two expounds ecofeminism as the third wave of women's movement and analyzes a spiritual ecocrisis in South Africa caused by the battle of sexes. Ecofeminism, this most recent manifestation of feminist activity, is said to be large and vital enough to parallel the first-wave nineteenth-century women's movement and the second-wave women's liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s. In the viewpoint of ecofeminists, patriarchy is the root cause of sexual oppression. Gender discrimination which permeated through the South African society was based on this ideology. Women were overridden by men in the colonial South African society, and even in the eyes of black natives, women (including white and black) should be absolutely obedient to men. When the oppression on female was too heavy and when the dignity of male was challenged as in the case of Mary and Dick, this contradiction between the sexes came to a peak, resulting in the physical or mental destruction of the three main characters. Sexual conflicts played an important role in intensifying the spiritual ecocrisis in South Africa.Chapter Three introduces the extension of ecofeminism to consider the interconnections between sexism, the domination of nature (including animals) and also racism and social inequalities, and then analyzes the spiritual ecocrisis caused by human oppression in South Africa, pointing out that patriarchy is also the conceptual root of human oppression and that various forms of human oppression in South Africa, including racial inequality and social injustice within the white settler society, all derive from this ideology. In South African society, the increasingly serious contradictions between the whites and the blacks and that between the white settlers were another important element that brought South African society into a spiritual ecocrisis.On the basis of the three chapters above, it can be concluded that the material ecology in South Africa was destroyed by the colonists' exploitation of the land and the spiritual ecology was losing its balance due to the racial and gender discrimination, and at the same time, within the white settler society there also existed the serious internal contradiction due to economic reasons. It was evident that the British colonialism in South Africa involved in the double crisis of materiality and mentality was damned to perdition. And the final tragedy of British colonists in South Africa has tolled the alarm bell for modern people and inspired people's ponderation on their contemporary mode of thinking and living as well as the existence of the whole world. The book can be considered as an apocalypse for modern people to build a harmonious world and maintain the existence of the world.