Poetically Man Dwells

Ecocriticism began to assume the look of a major critical insurgency in the early 1990s. Trying to revaluate literature on the principle of holism and mutual dependence as used in the science of ecology, it aims to promote harmony between man and nature as well as that among human beings. Based on ecocriticism, ecofeminism shows more concern for equality and social justice reflected in literary works and pays more attention to the subjugation and domination in the gender relationship. It identifies androcentrism as the root of the oppression of women and nature and advocates mutual dependence and care ethics. This thesis, approaching Willa Cather's three prairie works from an ecocritical perspective, is devoted to make a full exploration into Cather's ecological consciousness.Willa Cather is one of the most famous women writers in the first half of the 20th century in the American literary history. For long her Nebraska prairie fiction has won great critical acclaim for their celebration of man's triumph in the battle against nature. This thesis, after a thorough going-over of the three most weight-carrying prairie works O Pioneers!, My Antonia and Neighbour Rosicky from an ecological viewpoint, draws a different conclusion. In fact, Cather's writings emerge as environmentally conscious texts and have profound ecological implications when they are read against the background of Aldo Leopold's"land ethic", Arne Naess'Deep Ecology and modern ecofeminist theories. In the three pieces of writing mentioned above, Cather does not only explore unremittingly the close kinship between the human and the natural, but also touch upon such ecofeminist concerns as gender and patriarchy, which provides us a good opportunity to understand Cather's ecological vision comprehensively.This thesis consists of an introduction, two chapters and a conclusion. Cather's search for"poetic dwelling"is approached from two aspects, which are dealt with respectively in the two chapters of this paper.The introduction first gives a brief summary of Willa Cather and current studies on her, then provides a glimpse of the origin and development of ecocrticism and focuses on the illustration of deep ecological thinking as professed by Aldo Leopold, Fritjof Capra...