An Interpretation Of Dear Life From The Perspective Of Ecofeminism

Alice Munro(1931-)is one of the most important writers in contemporary Canadian literature.She was the recipient of Nobel Prize for literature in 2013 and was praised by Swedish Academy for “master of the contemporary short novel”.Dear Life is her latest masterpiece.Since it was published,it has been praised by most mainstream media,and won the Trillium Book Award in Ontario,Canada.This collection consists of 14 short stories.Munro,with a keen insight,combines women with nature in a simple language,depicts survival confusion of ordinary women who are in different stage of ages and their positive attitudes towards life in a patriarchal society.Up to now,domestic and foreign scholars analyze this short novel mainly from the perspective of feminism,natural landscape,autobiographical factors,narrative skills and so forth.Among the current research achievements at home and abroad,few of them interpret this work from the theory of ecofeminism,so this is exactly the innovation of this thesis.Ecofeminism theory started in the second half of the 20 th century.Because of innovative and inclusive characteristics,more and more scholars have paid attention to this “green” theory.Eco-feminists mainly harbor the views that there are certain connections between nature and women;the exploitation of human over nature and the oppression of women by men both stem from the same dualistic logic.It is helpful for women to liberate nature.This thesis is divided into three parts.The first part is introduction,which mainly introduces Alice Munro and her literary achievements,summarizes literature review of Dear Life at home and abroad,briefly illustrates the origin and main schools of ecofeminism and puts forward innovation point and research goal of this thesis.The second part is the main body composed of three chapters.The main body combines the theory and the work all the time.The first chapter mainly analyzes connections between women and nature.By analyzing the relationship between women and animals,women and plants,it shows that women and nature have common grounds.The second chapter mainly studies that women and nature are both in the oppressive structure of patriarchy,and are in the status of object and other.Human oppression of nature and men oppression of women are similar which both come from dualism in western cultural traditions,so eco-feminists aim to deconstruct dualism and patriarchy system.The first section begins with men's slaughter of animals and their destruction to the original ecological environment.Through analyzing the emotional relations between women and men,the second section stresses that women suffer from unfair treatments under the current society.It also reflects that men discriminate against women according to their occupations.They are still in a disadvantage position in many ways even though women have been largely liberated.The third chapter respectively analyzes women protagonists' awakening under the patriarchal oppression and their hope on ecological harmony.Their eco-feminist thoughts are reflected in this work:human beings are a part of nature rather than dominators.When dealing with contradictions,the same sex and the opposite sex are not opposite relations,but interdependent partnerships.Only by viewing problems with eco-feminist holism can human and nature coexist harmoniously.The first part shows the females self-awakening by analyzing female emotional independence,economic independence and personality independence.In spite of different troubles,the females still bravely face life and strive to find a way out of difficulties.For the second part,it mainly reflects that awakened women seek for ecological harmony.The last part is the conclusion of this thesis,which summarizes the point of view,explaining its research limitations and practical significances.The author hopes that this thesis can provide another new academic angle for later researchers.It aims to evoke human to respect nature and guides women how to adjust themselves to resolve life difficulties when they are in troubles.