The Subsersion And Transcendency Of Vendredi Ou Les Limbes Du Pacifique To Robinson Crusoe From The Perspective Of Deep Ecology

Robinson Crusoe features in its remarkable adventure story of Robinson, whose image in the book has been established as a perseverant and audacious capitalist fighting with Nature. For over two hundred years during which Robinson has been known to all, writers of different eras have spoken for themselves through"Robinson"and reconstructed Robinson's adventure. In 1967, Michel Tournier, a French writer, published a novel entitled Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique, which reviewed the Robinson story from an keen and particular perspective and pondered on such a complicated philosophical proposition as the relationship between man and nature, mirroring strong deep ecological awareness. This paper performs a detailed comparison between Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Tournier's Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique using the theory of deep ecology, tries to reflect the respective human spirit of their own era, and emphasizes the latter's deconstruction of and advancement over the former in its depiction of the living confusion of modern humans and its search for the ecological way out against the confusion.This paper consists of six parts:Part I introduces respectively the background and significance of this investigation, current status of research, research methodology, and the important and difficult parts together with the initiality.Part II mainly expounds the relevant theoretical foundation of the paper, i.e. deep ecology and ecocriticism, including the emergence, philosophical basis, research methods and major theories of deep ecology. Then it demonstrates the logical relation between deep ecology and ecocriticism, pointing out why deep ecology is an important component of ecocriticism and why it is in some respects reasonable in fiction analysis.Part III mainly investigates the difference and similarity between the two novels from the perspective of deep ecology. The emphasis lies in Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique's deconstruction of and advancement over Robinson Crusoe in the sense of ecology. It falls into five categories: different settings of plot of the two novels'beginning, the changing process of Robinson, the change of status of Friday, the important role of the Bible, different enlightening endings.Part IV mainly talks about the enlightening significance of the two novels. Robinson Crusoe is a realistic fable which represents the exploitation and destruction man does to nature; Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique stresses its directionality to the advancement of human civilization, and the idealism underneath.Part V analyzes the reasons why the two novels differ. Firstly different eras have given the two novels different themes; secondly, the two novels belong to different phases of human society advancement with the former primitive industrial civilization and the latter early stage of ecological civilization—they mirror literature of different stages of human society advancement.Part VI concludes that the two novels represent human spirits of different eras. From the perspective of deep ecology, the latter has deconstructed and surpassed the former.