An Ecofeminist Interpretation Of The Grass Is Singing

As one of the most prominent female writers after World War II inEnglish literature, Doris Lessing (1919- ) gains great reputation for hervarious literary perspectives and prolific works. In her sixty years’literary career, she creates nearly ten novels, seventy short stories, twodramas etc. the conceptions covers almost 20thcentury ideology, such ascolonialism, racialism, feminism, mysticism etc; the main concerns arethe politics and the fate of the woman. And her early works, setting SouthAfrica as the background, are highly autobiographical.Published in 1950, The Grass Is Singing as Doris Lessing’s maidenwork evokes large resonance. The novel taking the colonial South Africaof the middle of 19thcentury as the background, describes the destructiveexploitation by British settlers, depicts the miserable fate of the Blacksand women under the principle of racial and gender discriminationtogether with the law of jungle.This thesis tries to analyze the novel from the viewpoint of ecofeministto elucidate its ecological meaning and feminist consciousness. That is,the authors’profound reflection between human being and nature, femaleand male, the whites and the blacks. The application of ecofeminismliterary criticism has helped to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the novel.Overall speaking, the thesis consists of four parts:The introduction briefly introduces Doris Lessing and her main works;meanwhile, it makes a summary of the novel, the research status in andaboard, and the structure of this thesis.Chapter one will be theoretical perspective. On this chapter, it makes abrief introduction of main points of ecofeminism. And then, with theguide of this theory it expounds overall embodiments of this theory, thatis, men’s dominance over nature, male’s oppression to female, and thewhites superior to the blacks. As a movement with joint endeavor ofenvironmentalisms and feminisms, ecofeminism analyses theconnectedness of the oppressions of women and nature to demonstrate thenecessity of a connected liberation from domination. It holds thatpatriarchy is the root cause of human oppression of women and nature.Chapter two focuses on the conflicts between settlers and the SouthAfrican veld in the novel. Ecofeminists uphold a bio-centric worldview,respecting nature and all forms of life. They highlight the association ofwoman with nature and earth and hold the patriarchy is the root cause ofmen’s oppression of nature. In the novel, the white settlers, with intentionof conquering everything in this land, moved to South Africa. Theyexplored the land ignoring the balance of local ecosystem. The typicalrepresentatives are Dick and Charlie. Meanwhile, Mary as the representive of white women hates the veld of South Africa. Eventually,she is revenged by nature.Chapter three analyzes the sexual oppression in the novel. In the viewof ecofeminists, patriarchy is the root cause of sexual oppression. Genderdiscrimination permeated through South African society. In the novel,Mary, on one hand, seeks for independence both for mentality andspirituality. However, she fails under the patriarchic social environment.On the other hand, she is overridden by her father and husband. So is withher mother tortured by her father.Chapter four points out that the patriarchy results in racial inequalitybetween the white and the black. In the novel, the black are drove out oftheir land and live a hard life. What is more, they endure injustice withinthe white settler society. Moses is the one who represent them. Finally, herevenges with violence.On the basis of above four chapters, we can conclude that in SouthAfrica which was permeating of patriarchal ideology, the ecologicalbalance was destroyed by the colonist’s ruthless exploitation of the land;meanwhile, serious spiritual eco-crisis was brought due to the racial andgender discrimination. The tragedy of British colonists in South Africahas tolled the alarm bell for modern people and stimulated people’sconsideration of contemporary way of thinking and living so as to build aharmonious world with all lives on the earth.