Care, Politics And Literature-Adrienne Rich’s Care Ethics In A Human Eye:Essays On Art In Society

Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929-2012) is a prominent and remarkable American poet, essayist, critic, feminist and socialist in the 20th century. Her lifelong poetry creation and political activities make her one of the most influential and powerful poets of the United States in the modern era. With 25 anthologies of poetry and 7 volumes of prose writings, Rich was awarded and honored by many important American prizes for poetry, including "the National Medal for the Arts". With a broad vision and profound thinking, Rich incorporates various social issues into her writing, involving language, power, gender, ethnic groups, race, social class and social justice. A Human Eye:Essays on Art in Society 1997-2008, as her last volume of prose writing, also touches upon many public issues to awaken the indifferent and irresponsible modern people with the help of poetry.The thesis is intended to analyze Rich’s care ethics within her poetry, her literary criticism and political activities from the perspective of feminist care ethics. Based on close textual analysis, the thesis makes an attempt to elaborate Rich’s opposition to some liberal values in patriarchal ethics and to reveal her care ethics in this book. On the one hand, Rich challenges some liberal values and questions the justice ethics to combat imperialism, racism and sexual discrimination; on the other hand, Rich puts emphasis on the interpersonal relationships and interdependence between people, cares about the needs of others and attaches great importance to responsibility as a necessary element in human development. Besides, Rich also tries to unfold the relationship between care and politics:care can be a political strategy, allowing people to view more about political problems and encouraging more people in marginal position to participate in politics. Finally, with a study of the historical and social backgrounds and Rich’s personal life, the thesis analyzes the sources of Rich’s care ethics.This study on Rich’s care ethics in A Human Eye helps to provide a new perspective to interpret Rich’s thoughts in her poetry and prose writing so as to offer a reference for Chinese and foreign scholars who are interested in Rich’s works.