An Eco-Citical Reading Of The Burning World

Ballard is one of the most outstanding contemporary writers acknowledged by the English. He is the representative English writer of the New Wave movement in science fiction and has been honored as"king of science fiction". Ballard was once on the shortlist of English Booker Prize and won the Guardian Fiction Prize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Ballard ranked the twenty-seventh on the list of 50 greatest writers after the Second World War, who were chosen through public appraisal by the Thames in 2008, London.The Burning World published in 1964 is one of the trilogy of doomsday by Ballard. The novel shows all the marrow of life facing the rare drought caused by nuclear radiation. The Burning World is generally regarded as a science fiction describing the scenes of the end of the world. But this novel is full of worry about ecological crisis and accusation for people's destroying the ecology. The author imputes the source of ecological crisis to modern civilization of humankind and he thinks man ruins his living environment himself. As an early work of Ballard The Burning World focuses on problems about ecological environment, the breakage of man's living environment by natural forces and adaption of man to new environment. It reflects natural scientists and ecological scientists'worry about man's future in the form of fiction and gives warnings about that. This essay will excavate the ecological significance embodying in the novel on the basis of text analysis and eco-criticism. Through analyzing the breach of modern civilization to natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology, this essay seeks to arouse people's examination about their own life style and their ecological sense of seeking for harmonious nature in examination and accusation. This essay is composed of six chapters.Chapter one is the introduction of James Graham Ballard, the summary and motif of her novel, The Burning World and some comments on it. There are also explanations of aim and significance of this essay in this part.Chapter two detailedly introduces eco-criticism, the theoretical basis, employed in the essay, including the origin, early stage and contemporary development, its mission and contribution to literature. Chapter three discusses the breach of modern civilization to natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology embodying in the target text in details. The development of industry not only destroys the natural environment that man relies to live and leads to the rare drought but also disharmonizes the social relationship between people. Industrial waste is dumped into the river on whose surface forms a protective skin which stops the evaporation of vapor. The weather becomes hotter and hotter and the river withers. People in Hamilton become greedy and selfish. They snatch water in such a crazy way that they even kill others for it. Humanity is distorted. Ballard criticizes modern civilization for the purpose of arousing people's rethinking about their way of development.Chapter four involves a list of reasons that caused the ecological disaster in The Burning World including human-centralism, the selfish personality and man's excessive consumptive culture. Since the incorrect ways of living and developing are the source of various ecological disasters, this essay analyzes these inappropriate ways and the results of serious ecological crisis caused by them and rethink through them thus concludes the correct ecological conception for people to insist henceforth.Chapter five presents the author's pursuit of harmonious ecology through analysis of the descriptions of the forlorn scenes and the main characters.Final conclusion is that The Burning World embodies rich ecological consciousness and bares the fundamental features of ecological literature. The deep-seated warning sense in the novel is explored. The Burning World inspires people to recognize and treat nature in a right way and reevaluate the relationship between humankind and nature. It also evokes people's love for nature. It is endowed with a kind of universal significance theoretically and practically in seeking the origin of the current ecological crisis and finding the outlet of the embarrassing predicament of modern civilization under new circumstance. So the important social functions of literature as ideology are embodied.