Pursuing A Harmonious Chord

The Song of the Lark is one of the masterpieces by Willa Cather,an outstanding woman of letters in the galley of American literature.The spunky,persistent heroine Thea and the beautiful nature give the reader great impression.During the latest decades,this novel had been studied by many critics from diversified perspectives.This thesis attempts to analyze The Song of the Lark in light of ecofeminist criticism. Ecological feminism or ecofeminism emerged in the 1970s alongside second-wave feminism and the ecological movement.Ecofeminists point out that women and nature are intertwined and closely related.They both serve as the debased "other" in opposition to the masculine "self".In ecofeminists' eyes,women must unite the demands of the women's movement with those of the ecological movement to envision a radical reshaping of the basic socioeconomic relations and the underlying values of this modern industrial society.Woman and nature are the two major themes of Willa Cather's novels.Through emphasizing the close connection between women and nature,the oppression of women under patriarchy and their struggle for equality,and the integrity of human beings and nature in the novel,this thesis manages to get a conclusion that Cather is a woman writer with ecofeminist awareness.She advocates the development concept of harmony between humans and nature,men and women.This thesis comprises three chapters with one introduction and a conclusion. Introduction concentrates on the overview of the ecofeminism development as well as the literary review of Willa Cather and her criticism.Cather's works have been interpreted from various perspectives.Now the critical attention is focused on the ecocritical or ecofeminist interpretation of her writings.Her works emerge as environmentally-conscious texts characterized by detailed depiction of nature as well as the close relationship between women and nature.Chapter One shows the interconnection between woman and nature in Moonstone, Thea's hometown.Women have the quality of the land and the land has the quality of women. Women and nature have some intrinsic affinity for they have the same physical function—reproduction and nurture.The Heroine Thea loves nature,identifies with nature, and gets her artistic inspiration from nature.Chapter Two mainly discusses the pursuit of equality between man and woman.Women are not treated equally as men in a patriarchal society.In the way of Thea's pursuit of art,the men who seem to help her always hold the patriarchal ideology and have their own aims.As a traditional woman figure,Mrs.Kronborg shows her great understanding and support for Thea. As a new age woman,Thea makes conscious struggles against them and at last she gets the equal status with men.Chapter Three mainly focuses on the last integrity of man,woman and natural world,in which Thea also gets her happy ending.After the Chicago depression,Thea recovers in the bosom of nature and finally becomes a leading opera singer.Based on mutual understanding and interdependence,Thea finds her ideal love.They live very friendly and achieve the perfect "unity of heaven and humanity".This is also accorded with the goal of ecofeminists that is to reconstruct a harmonious society where people can live in harmony with each other and with nature.The conclusion summarizes the views of this thesis and affirms Willa Cather's achievement and her status as an ecofeminist forerunner.This paper,through the application of ecofeministic theories into the analysis of classic texts such as The Song of the Lark, expects to provide inspiration to other scholars to apply this approach in the study and analysis of other classic works.