Ambivalence In Robert Frost's Ecological Consciousness

Robert Frost has proved to be one of the most popular American poets of the twentieth century. The pastoral landscape and country things remained the focus of his poetry. Thus he is labeled as a "nature poet". With the evolvement of ecocriticism, Frost's poetry is paid more and more attention by ecological critics. But, in the light of ecological critical methods, most ecological critics simply study the relationships between man and nature in his poems, ignoring the complexity and richness of Frost's ecological consciousness. The current ecological crisis on the earth forces man to reevaluate the influences and effects of social development and human beings' spiritual situations on natural ecology. Frost, far beyond the pastoral poets of traditional sense, probes through his sharp insight the internal relations and conflicts of nature, society and man. By analyzing Frost's ecological consciousness, this thesis attempts to demonstrate Frost's deep concerns and reflections on the ecological situations man has to face in the twentieth century.The present thesis is a study from the perspective of ecocritical reading. The thesis studies Frost's ambivalent ecological consciousness from three aspects:the natural ecology, the social ecology and the spiritual ecology with the methodology of close reading. The thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 mainly analyzes Frost's ambivalence in natural ecology, looking into Frost's dualistic views of nature, paradoxical attitudes towards nature and the contradictory relationship of man and nature. Chapter 2 mainly analyzes the ambivalence in Frost's social ecological consciousness, presenting Frost's dualistic views of industrial society and the contradictory relationship between man and society. Chapter 3 mainly analyzes the ambivalences in Frost's spiritual ecological consciousness. This part probes the contradictory relationship between man and others and portrays Frost's paradoxical consciousness relating to modern man's spiritual states.From the perspective of ecocriticism, the thesis comparatively completely expounds Frost's ecological consciousness from three aspects of nature, society and spirit. This thesis expects to gain a better view of Frost's ecological ideas and a better understanding of Frost's poetry through this mode of analysis, especially at a time when the ecological situation is getting worse and worse. This thesis also expects to help to construct a multidimensional ecological thinking and reading mode in the ecological-oriented literary and cultural studies.