An Ecocritical Study Of Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit

Linda Hogan(1947—)is a prolific and influential contemporary Native American writer.Mean Spirit is her first novel and magnum opus.Since its publication in 1990,the scholars and critics have reviewed it from many perspectives including Native American studies,feminism as well as post-colonialism.There are also a few scholars studying this novel from the perspective of ecocriticism.But these studies mainly focus on the angle of environmental justice and analyze the environmental injustice the Native Americans have suffered.This thesis,by employing the ecocritical theories,from the aspects of natural ecology,social ecology and spiritual ecology,carries out a whole,systematic,and comprehensive analysis and interpretation of Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit,aiming to disclose the ecological thoughts and the ecological wisdom embodied in the novel.In terms of natural ecology,Hogan presents the harmonious coexistence of the Native Indians with nature,and discloses the Euro-Americans’ damage to the local natural environment in the name of development.By contrasting of the different relationships between human beings and nature,Hogan’s praise of the integration of the Native Indians and nature is shown,and her criticism of conquering,controlling,plundering and destroying nature prevailing in modern industrial society is presented.At the same time,the author’s ecological concern and her reflection on modern civilization are revealed.In the aspect of social ecology,Hogan portrays the close connections within the Indian community and the interdependence of the tribal people.Meanwhile,she discloses the white men’s mean acts of colonizing the Indian Territory.By presenting the changes of the Indian tribes and community,Hogan shows the white Americans’ exploitation and plundering of the indigenous people in the process of modernization.The mean acts and the mean spirit of the whites are revealed and the significance of the interdependence of human beings is stressed.In the light of spiritual ecology,Hogan depicts the spiritual crises of the Indian people caused by the religious infiltration and culture erosion of the white Americans,and presents the spiritual homeland of the native people which is redeemed to relieve the living dilemmas.Here,the healing power of nature is stressed and the importance of the harmonious coexistence of human beings and nature is reaffirmed.Meanwhile,the significance of cultural diversity is revealed.By the study of Hogan’s novel Mean Spirit from the perspective of ecocriticism,this thesis concludes that the novel attacks the Western anthropocentrism,discloses the white men’s colonial domination on the native people and their destruction of the local ecological environment,and presents the author’s reflection on modern civilization.In the meantime,this thesis points out that Hogan provides us with another way to see the world by presenting the Indian people’s simple natural view of animism and their ecological holism in which all things are interrelated and interconnected.