An Eco-Critical Analysis Of American Nature Writing From The Singing Wilderness And Refuge

Sigurd F. Olson’s The Singing Wilderness is a classic of American nature writing. In David Backes’ book A Wilderness Within: The Life Of Sigurd F. Olson, the writer said that Olson’s wilderness philosophy was not only influenced by Emerson, Thoreau, Burroughs, Huxley and W. H. Hudson but also affected by oriental Taoism and Confucianism. The chairman of American Wilderness Society, George Marshall explained why Olson could be so popular : “He made wilderness and life sing.” But there are almost few people to study Sigurd F. Olson’s masterpiece from the perspective of ecocriticism.Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place is also a classic of American nature writing. The writer Terry Tempest Williams is a contemporary writer and naturalist of America. This book received widely attention when it was published in 1991. Critics studied it from different angles such as the typical literary form, and feminism. But few scholars analyzed it from ecocriticism.The author of this thesis tries to offer a comprehensive and detailed look into The Singing Wilderness and Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by applying theories of ecocriticism, and intends to get a deeper penetration into the relationship between human and nature, thereby, to explore the harmony integration of them.This thesis consists of three parts, an introduction, the main body and a conclusion.The part of the introduction mainly aims to provide a brief introduction to Sigurd F. Olson and his The Singing Wilderness, and Terry Tempest Williams and her Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. This part shows the purpose and the significance of writing, and it also includes the research achievement, and the necessity of the research on the two masterpieces.The text part of this thesis contains four chapters.In the main body of the text part, Chapter One first introduces some basic knowledge of ecocriticism theory, such as its definition, its development and the embodiment of the theory in The Singing Wilderness and Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place.Chapter Two analyzes The Singing Wilderness and Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place comprehensively and thoroughly. And then discusses human not only could get basic material necessities from nature, but could enjoy the beauty and comfort of nature. Nature is regarded as a spiritual sanctuary and the original home of human.Chapter Three explains that human ignore the protection of environment because of human swelling greed. And the industrial destruction to environment leads to the temporary alienation between human and nature, which brings damage to nature and human themselves, such as the living environment and the health condition of human are threatened.Chapter Four elucidates the human awakening of ecological awareness. They change their mind from anthropocentric to ecocentrism, and they realize the equal status between human and all the other creatures and the importance of the harmony between human and nature, and finally return to the nature family.The conclusion is the last part of this thesis. It summarizes the foregoing chapters, reiterates the author’s viewpoint, and states the necessity and the practical significance of analysis on The Singing Wilderness and Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place from the perspective of ecocriticism. Readers could learn the American nature writing and the viewpoints of nature and ecology of American. And through this thesis, the author would like to warn people to respect and protect nature and pay more attention to the the purification and sublimation of the spirits.