The "Complex Of Wilderness" In Gary Snyder's Ecopoetics

Gary Snyder is one of the rare modern poets who have bridged the gap between popular appeal and serious academic criticism. Snyder began his career in the 1950s and since then he has explored a wide range of social and spiritual matters in both poetry and prose. Snyder's work blends physical reality—precise observations of wild nature—with inner insight received primarily through the practice of Zen Buddhism. He celebrates nature, the simple, the animal, the sexual, the tribal, the self. He sees man as an indissoluble part of the natural environment, flourishing when he accepts and adapts to that natural heritage, creating a hell on earth and within himself when he is separated from it by his intellect and its technological and societal creations.While Snyder has gained the attention of readers as a spokesman for the preservation of the natural world and its earth-conscious cultures, he is not simply a"back-to-nature"poet with a facile message. The example of Snyder's life and values offered a constructive, albeit underground, and alternative to mainstream American culture. As a spokesman for wilderness, he practices his beliefs in his poems and in his daily life, advocating a new style of life, that is,"poetic dwelling"in the wilderness with a"wild mind".Snyder's unique ecopoetry has drawn great interests of contemporary literary critics. Being different from the previous researches, this thesis will give a deep and thorough analysis to the close relationship between Snyder's ecopoetry and his"wilderness complex". With an attempt to illustrate how the topic from different aspects, the thesis consists of four parts apart from the introduction and the conclusion.The introduction will present a brief and general view to Snyder's life and works and the previous studies on the poet and his works, indicating the close relationship between the poet and his"wilderness complex".Chapter one mainly discusses the development of humans'conception of wilderness and different attitudes toward it, which enlighten Snyder and become the precious source of his literary creation.Chapter two mainly focuses on the poet's attitudes and feelings toward wilderness, which are intricate with his own life experience. As far as he's concerned, wilderness is the root and the neighbors of human beings, having spiritual values which enlighten and inspire the poet. His reverence for wilderness and intimacy with wilderness not only expressed in his poems but also practiced in his daily life are also demonstrated well in this chapter.Chapter three refers to the topic on Gary Snyder's reflection on the relationship between wilderness civilization from which we know that human's isolation and conquer over wilderness result in our sense of rootlessness, thus, wilderness preservation is necessary and urgent to us. But Snyder also sees the juxtaposition of wilderness and civilization, thus, to some extent; we can heal the gap between them and preserve the wilderness as well.Chapter four"Poetic Dwelling in Wilderness"is about Snyder's eco-utopia, which is poetic dwelling in the wilderness. Firstly the poet presents us what is"sense of place"and he is eager to go back to his own place where there is real work and real life to live and makes us understand sense of home and belonging. Then he demonstrates his optimistic and hopeful wishes that we can find our true place in the world living in harmony with the non-humans if we have ecological conscience and dwelling poetically in the wilderness forever.The conclusion part reviews and summarizes the main ideas of the thesis enlightening us to love and protect the mutual home and keep a wild and broad mind living in the world happily and peacefully.