A Study Of Eco-Womanism In Alice Walker's Works

Alice Walker (1944-) is a brilliant star in the American literary arena. She has been active in this arena since 1970s, making herself as one of the most influential women writers at the present age of America. At the early stage of critique on her literary works, critics mainly analyzed Walker's works on the perspectives of feminism, and now angles are turning to western eco-feminism. However, the theory and practice of western eco-feminism stemmed from the western countries, so this black woman writer's diversified and thoughtful connotations can easily be shielded due to these fixed theories and models. So, in this thesis, the writer holds the idea that the ecological thoughts of Walker can not be defined by western eco-feminism; for it possesses its own distinctive connotations.The thesis discusses the significance and value of Walker's ecological ideology through comparing with the western eco-feminist ideas. Some of Walker's most representative novels, prose and poems are also cited for the interpretation of her special ecological ideology.The writer believes that Walker is an eco-womanist whose ideology is different from that of eco-feminists. Firstly, Walker emphasizes the social factors of black women's experience. Black women do not innately connect with nature; actually, they integrate with nature gradually in their fight for creating and protecting their own life. In this way, Walker makes black women and nature connection distinctly conspicuous on the spectrum of the historical and the social background, which is totally different from eco-feminism which tends to be essentialism. Secondly, Walker's recognition of "African roots" and her experience as a black woman make her feel the pain of black women than her western counterparts. She expands the black women and nature connection to the backdrop of both racial and sexual oppressions by specifically elaborating the complicated relations among natural oppressions, sexual oppressions and racial oppressions, which transcends the visual field of western eco-feminists who lay emphasis only on sexual and natural oppressions. Thirdly, Walker attaches the importance more on the combination of theory and practice. For pursuing the ideal of the wholeness of human beings, Walker devotes herself to any social activities strived for the rights of nature and black women, either enlightening people in her works of art, or setting up her eco-womanist ideals with these practical moves. The connotations of Walker's literature creation not only include the element of anti discrimination, but more importantly, it expresses her pursuit that people of different races and gender can be changed from confrontation to coexistence, that nature can be changed from the oppressed to be harmonious with human, that human themselves can realize their wholeness. The ecological ideas in Walker's works of art carry profound meanings which have already surpassed her works. Compared with western eco-feminism, Walker's ecological ideas have more enlightening meanings for the whole human world.