Nature, Women, Race

With its theoretical characteristics, ecofeminism is widely applied to English andAmerican literary study and research. In the recent years ecofeminist readings ofMorrison’s and Lessing’s works are booming. According to historical basis andsocietal reason, it is sound to combine the practical issues of nature, women, and race.In view of the lack of overall analysis of the relevant researches at home and abroad,this thesis aims to probe the common ecofeminist discourses of nature, women, andrace between Sula and The Golden Notebook against a background of literaryglobalization. On the basis of ecofeminist insistence of equality and harmony andopposition to any ruling forms, this thesis analyzes that in the two novels nature isbeautiful, nature is crying, nature connects with women; new women rebel againstpatriarchy in the forms of insanity, masculinity or androgyny; and racism not onlyexists between races, but is also internalized in black people’s consciousness, culture,and life. The analysis agrees with ecofeminist theory. This thesis follows the researchprocedures introduced by the relevant book, and adopts research methods such asgeneralization and deduction, combining literary theory and text, close reading fromthe perspective of theme, transtextual and cross-cultural studies, compare and contrast,structural analysis, etc. The thesis draws the conclusion that nature, women, and raceare ecofeminist flowers of Sula and The Golden Notebook, which cry out theircommon ecofeminist criticism and insistence with a transtextual relationship betweenthem. It is also discovered that ecofeminism has to do with female insanity and female masculinity, which stimulates profound thinking and revelation of hiddenconnections in future researches. In a time when we Chinese people construct aharmonious society and implement sustainable development, this thesis is expected tobe beneficial to solving the global problems like nature, women, and race.