A Study Of Gary Snyder's Ecological Thougths

This thesis aims to analyze Gary Snyder's ecological thoughts. The American poet Gary Snyder is regarded as the Poet Laureate of deep ecology for his great contribution to deep ecology movement. He is often associated with the Beat Generation, and is honored as"the unbeaten Beat Generation poet". But differentiating from other poets of Beat Generation, overthrowing and rejecting everything, Snyder draws attention to healing and recuperation.The thesis mainly consists of five chapters. Chapter One gives a brief account of eco-criticism, the present global ecological crisis, especially the ecological problems in China, and modern environmental movement. Then, it points out the motives and social significance of selecting Gary Snyder as a case study. Besides, it sums up the general studies on Snyder and refers to the novelty of the thesis.Chapter Two discusses modern eco-philosophical approaches by analyzing three important terms: bioregionalism, biocentrism, and deep ecology. Bioregionalism is a movement focusing on one's eco-social geographic area, that is, one's bioregion. Biocentrism is a point of view centering on the inherent value of nonhumans, and ecosystems. Deep ecology is a branch of recent eco-philosophy and emphasizes the importance of the non-human species, regarding human beings as being no way superior because it is just an integral part of the ecosystems. In addition, the chapter gives a brief introduction to the ecological concepts of Gary Snyder.Chapter Three aims to analyze the ecological concepts of Gary Snyder in terms of his wilderness ethics, vision of civilization, and idea of nature. The first section discusses Snyder's wilderness ethics from two aspects: Snyder's criticism of modern industrial civilization and his advocacy of eco-civilization. Snyder inherits but further develops Thoreau's view of wilderness. He regards himself as the spokesman of wilderness. He puts forward three concepts as"wild","wildness","wilderness", and stresses human beings'"sense of place". While criticizing modern civilization which has spoilt the ecosystem, Snyder is too much concerned about the dilemma brought by industrial civilization to human beings. This dilemma is further discussed from three aspects: far from the nature, anthropocentrism, and overexploitation. After criticizing the industrial civilization, Snyder also puts forward some feasible solutions which can be used to relieve human beings from ecological predicaments. Thus those solutions will be fully explored in the advocacy of eco-civilization. The thesis then explores Snyder's idea of nature. He holds the view that ecosystems can be regarded as Mother of all livings on the earth. Mother devotes herself selflessly; she can satisfy everyone's needs but not his greediness.Chapter Four deals with Snyder's eco-poetics from four aspects: theme, language, grammar, and form. In Snyder's opinion, language is ecological in theme, biological in language, natural in grammar and form should be a mixture of"real"and"empty"beyond literal texts. By theme, Snyder's poetry focuses on ecological consciousness. Most of his poems are concerned over the survival of all beings, especially nonhumans; his poetry is a mixture of inner and outer world. For Snyder, there is a link between man and nonhuman, it is natural but crucial. Thus, man should compose poems both objectively and subjectively. By language, Snyder's poetry is deceptive simple. Most of his poems even cannot be regarded as poems according to traditional poetics. But that's the point which makes Snyder's poetry unique and typical. By grammar,"Tawny Grammar"is applied in Snyder's poetry. He believes that grammar is not a thing which only belongs to human beings, but also belongs to nonhumans. While analyzing"Tawny grammar", three striking features are further explored: lack of tense of verbs, enumerative syntactic structures, and Scalar field theory. By form, Snyder's poetry is a successful merger of"real"and"empty".In conclusion, Snyder's eco-ethic thoughts are relatively objective, sound, ideal, and thoroughgoing. However, there are still some limitations in his ecological thoughts, that is, he shows his concern for long-term policies rather than temporary one. For his great devotion to eco-criticism and his establishment of the unique eco-poetics, these defects maybe the characteristics making his thoughts valuable and charming.The innovation this thesis aims to make is to discuss Gary Snyder's ecological thoughts at both macro level and micro level. At macro level, Snyder's ecological thoughts will be analyzed in terms of wilderness ethics, ecological vision, and so on. What's more, three important terms will be also studied: deep ecology, bioregionalism and biocentrism. At micro level, Snyder's ecological thoughts will be further analyzed by studying some of his poems in terms of theme, grammar, form, and language.