An Ode Of Ecotopia

Ecocriticism has been more and more influential in the field of literary studies since1990swith integrity, harmony and interdependence as its fundamental principles. It evaluates andanalyzes literary works from an ecological point of view aiming at presenting a real harmonybetween man and nature, man and man, man and self.Out of Africa is a classic novel written by Karen Blixen, the famous Denmark literarywoman in20thcentury. In the novel, Blixen blends her own life history of running a coffeeplantation in African highlands into her ecological thoughts about the relation between man andnature, man and man, man and self. She narrates a harmonious African world of picturesquesceneries, traditional customs and wild animals in exquisite words, and creates a group of honest,diligent, brave and sincere Africans. The natural utopia, social utopia and spiritual utopia built inthe novel are not only symbols of integrity, harmony, fraternity, equality and freedom but alsosigns of humanity from the age of industrialization, consumerization and domination steppinginto a simple, healthy and green inner world. Blixen finally integrates herself with Africa andfinishes her pursuit of an integral selfhood. Meanwhile, the ecotopia Blixen constructs in thenovel shows Blixen’s forward-looking ecological ideology and her sincere concern for the futureof humanity.The thesis would like to analyze the novel from an ecocritical perspective. It explores theecocentric thoughts contained in the novel and tries to reconstruct the harmonious relationshipbetween man and nature, man and man, and man and self. The thesis also makes a study ofBlixen’s forward-looking ecological thoughts expecting to help people have least knowledge ofvarious ecological problems for now and promote the construction of ecological civilization inpost-modern world.The thesis is composed of six chapters.The first two parts of Chapter One introduce the background, purposes and questions ofwriting the thesis, and the third part is about the framework of the thesis.Chapter Two is literature review. This chapter gives a general literature review on the author－Blixen, the novel－Out of Africa and the theory－ecocriticism at home and abroad. There is adeep connection among the author, the novel and the theory, which is always about man andnature.Chapter Three, chapter Four and chapter Five are the body part of the thesis and from threeaspects present Blixen’s ideology of ecological holism.Chapter Three analyzes a natural utopia Blixen constructs in the novel from perspectives ofland ethic theory and animal liberation theory, etc. The relationship between man and nature is interdependence. Human beings cannot survive without nature. What’s more, Blixen is moved bythe original, beautiful African world and African people’s complete coexistence with nature. Shebecomes an admirer of nature, while other westerners still live as the master of nature.Chapter Four discusses the relationship between man and man from the perspective ofsocial ecology. Blixen shapes a social utopia in Out of Africa where each one is equal withoutdomination, hierarchy or discrimination. Blixen has fully integrated with Africa becoming anadvocator of the harmonious society. However, the westerners are indulgent with domination andconquest.Chapter Five studies Blixen’s view on man and self from a point of view of spiritualecology. It supports the idea that the integral selfhood is not only the key to keep harmonybetween man and nature but the solution to the current spiritual crisis. Blixen finds the innerpeace through integrating with African nature and people and perfects herself as an integralindividual existence creating a song of her own. Conversely, because of the arrogance ofanthropocentrism, the westerners are lost in their divided-self.Chapter Six is the conclusion. Firstly, the harmony between man and nature is based onself-integrity, which brings about happiness, moral pleasure and mental satisfaction towards life.While the divided self is the reason for anthropocentrism that causes various natural, social andspiritual crises. Only if human beings pay more attention to the relation between man and naturecan they live more eco-friendly, freely and harmoniously. With the hope of keeping a realharmony between man and nature, Blixen constructs an ecotopia in Out of Africa showing hersincere concern for the future of human beings. Moreover, she herself from an admirer of naturebecomes an advocator of social utopia and realizes her self-integrity, which creats a classic songof harmony.