A Study Of The Call Of The Wild And Wolf Totem In The Perspective Of Ecocriticism

Jack London is a remarkable realistic writer of America, whose works are not only widespread all over the mainland of the United States, but also are popular with people from all countries. Especially his representative work The Call of the Wild which brings him unvarying fame when it is published. This work not only makes animal novels become the objects that the whole world imitates, its ecological thoughts also have an important influence on the development of the ecoliterature of the world. For instance, the establishment of the ecological consciousness in Chinese contemporary literature is profoundly influenced by the western literature and ecological thoughts. Particularly, the animal images in the Chinese contemporary literature are deeply affected by The Call of the Wild of Jack London.Recently, with the continuous deterioration of the ecological environment, ecological crisis being a global problem is embodied in other countries'literature, including the Chinese literature. Chinese native writer Jiang Rong's long semi-autobiographical novel named Wolf Totem is the representative work of the Chinese contemporary ecoliterature. It is full of bright ecological consciousness. Jiang Rong not only writes the specific meaning of the grassland wolves in the ecosystem on the grassland, but also writes deeply to the subject-of-a-life of the grassland wolves to discuss their dispositions and fates.Being a kind of frame of literary theory, ecocriticism is based on the pulse of times of the development of literary, researches on literary creations and literary texts from a particular perspective and explores and rethinks people's way of life and the development patterns of the civilization. Ecocriticism aims to explore the ecological wisdom contained in the development of human civilization through the discussion on the literary texts, making it provide a feasible approach to dispel the contemporary ecological crisis and construct an ideal ecological environment. Therefore, today when the ecological crisis is getting worse and worse, to interpret literary texts from the perspective of ecocrticism is contemporary hot critical mode. This thesis is just to make an in-depth research on two excellent Eastern and Western ecological works from the perspective of ecocriticism to explore the ecological consciousness and cultural connotation reflected in them.The thesis is composed of the introduction, the main body, and the conclusion. In the part of introduction, the author mainly introduces the domestic and foreign research actualities about The Call of the Wild and Wolf Totem. Besides, the author introduces the writing aims of the thesis and its innovation researches. Making a general survey of the research results home and abroad on The Call of the Wild and Wolf Totem, although there are some ones from the perspective of ecocriticism, there are not so many comparative studies of the two novels in the perspective of ecocroticism. However, both of the two novels are masterpieces of the ecoliterature and belong to different Eastern and Western cultures. Either the dogs under Jack London's pen or the wolves in the book of Jiang Rong inevitably reflect his own national and cultural characters. Therefore, today when the intercultural communication is getting more and more frequent, it has both theoretical and practical significances for the thesis to make an in-depth research on the two novels and explore the ecological consciousnesses and cultural connotations reflected in them by a close reading.The main body consists of four chapters:Chapter One focuses on the basic connotations, reasons for emergence and principles of ecocriticism. The basic connotation of it is to attempt to accomplish the transformation of the world outlook which is biology-centric, an extension of the ethics and the developing of the human concept by a kind of culture revolution. There are three reasons for the emergence of ecocriticism, namely, the sharp deterioration of the ecological environment, the promotion of the ecoliterature, and the demand of the development of the literary theories. Principles of ecocriticism discussed in the thesis are non-anthropocentrism, deep ecology and ecological holism.Chapter Two explores the similar ecological themes of the two novels. The first section introduces strong ecological consciousness in the two novels. Both of them show infinite love for nature, great sympathy on animals'misery and introspection on the relationship between man and nature. The second section portrays the harsh environmental background where the protagonists of the two novels Buck and grassland wolves exist. The third section expresses the two writers'strong love for animals.Chapter Three analyzes the animal images of two novels in view of ecology. Buck is a hero in the wild, who is independent, brave and aggressive. He stands for the western values of individualism. While the grassland wolves are a collectivity. They are united, smart, and have a strong collective consciousness. They represent the typical collectivism values.Chapter Four is about the ecological concerns embodied in the two novels. The Call of the Wild only pays attention on opposing maltreating animals and its ecological concern just stays in the level of protecting dogs. This is the opinion held by the early animal rights theory and the ecological concern does not expand to all the non-human existences. Thus, it is not comprehensive. While in the Wolf Totem, the author not only loves wolves, but also reveres them. Moreover, this kind of love is not only limited in wolves,it is enlarged to grassland, rivers, rocks and other non-human forms of life. What is more uncommon is that the love contains deep reverence for life, which is obvious to walk much further than Jack London's animal protectionism in the road of ecocriticism.Lastly, the part of conclusion summarizes the preceding opinions and points out the purport of the thesis. Jack London's ecological consciousness belongs to the primary stage of the development of ecoliterature. While Jiang Rong writes about not only his strong love and reverence for the grassland wolves, but also grassland wolves'great effects on keeping the balance of the ecosystem on the grassland. He shows strong love and reverence for all life forms, which not only embodies the thoughts of deep ecology and ecological holism, but also reflects Albert Schweitzer's theory of reverence for life. Besides, the research results of the thesis can not only bring the Chinese wisdom to the development of ecoliterature of the world, but also the practical experience can provide some inspirations for lessening the contemporary ecological crisis. Moreover, the cultural differences reflected in the thesis also offer some help for understanding cultural differences and reducing cultural conflicts.