Ecological Consciousness In Jack London’s Works

Nowadays,ecological crisis has become one of the crucial issues in the wave of globalization.As a theoretical practice and cultural approach to this crisis,ecocriticism arose in the 1970 s.Hereafter,it has aroused a surge of reinterpretation and restudies of American naturalistic writers and their works domestically and abroad.Jack London,as one of the most important American Realistic-Naturalistic authors of the early 20 th century,embodies multiple and complicated ecological consciousnesses throughout his literary career.He pays close attention to the relations between man and nature,human and society,mankind and spirit and is steadily recognized as an environmentalist by critics.Though the ecological study of Jack London has already initiated along with the birth of ecocriticism and achieved big progress,it is far from maturity.In this thesis,certain reflections and attempts have been achieved as follows.In ecological studies of Jack London,one possibility is,to rely on the basis of the three principles of ecocriticism and to innovate the domestic common practice of organizing theses;the other is to explore the pattern of London’s ecological consciousness in macro-study,which is rarely seen both at home and abroad,hoping that it will help further Jack London ecostudy.Based on the ecocriticism,interdisciplinary theories within ecocriticism,history of American literature and a close reading of the texts,the thesis analyzes Jack London’s three representative works,The Call of The Wild,Martin Eden and The Valley of the Moon.In the interpretation of London’s ecological consciousnesses from the perspectives of nature ecology,social ecology,and spiritual ecology,this thesis aims to grasp a deep understanding of London’s ecological consciousness to induce its characteristics.The thesis is divided into five parts,including introduction,three body chapters,and conclusion:The introduction part firstly briefs Jack London’s personal life and his representative works.Hereafter,it reviews the domestic and foreign research on the ecological consciousness of Jack London and clarifies major concepts of ecocriticism and ecological consciousness.As for the body part,in the first chapter,London’s early novella The Call of the Wild is taken as a case study to demonstrate on the author’s nature awareness.As a dog with the human mind,Buck has highly eco-aesthetic experiences in Northland wildness.And the aesthetic practices of naturalness,holism,and engagement signify the formation of the ecological awareness of nature in Jack London’s early writing.In the second chapter,Jack London’s social novel Martin Eden is interpreted from the perspective of social ecology under the guidance of eco-Marxism.It points out that London’s criticism of the injustice of capitalist society,the alienated men in capitalist industrial mode and the destructive effect of commercialization of literature on the writers,is an exposition of the inherent anti-ecological nature of capitalism.Martin Eden is,therefore,a concentrated expression of Jack London’s social ecological consciousness.The third chapter pivots on London’s later pastoral novel The Valley of the Moon based on the theory of spiritual ecology.It traces the origin of spiritual crises in the contemporary society and demonstrates on the detriment and unbalanced spiritual ecology.In the analysis of Jack London’s pastoral program,Jack London’s spiritual ecological consciousness in his later career is then revealed.The conclusion part probes the characteristics of Jack London’s ecological consciousnesses based on the reflection of his ecological thoughts,hoping that it will be beneficial to Jack London ecological studies in the future.