A Study Of Wilderness Image In Mature Period Of American Modernization

Wilderness is one of the literary images peculiar to America. Taken American modernization as the background, this thesis selects the beginning of the 20 th century–the American modernization of this historical period as the research stage. With the theory of ecocriticism and ecofeminism, this thesis focuses on the three works of The Country of the Pointed Firs, O! Pioneers, The Land of Little Rain, respectively written by the three female writers, Mary Austin, Sarah Orne Jewett and Willa Sibert Cather, in order to explore the female wilderness in this period of American Modernization.This thesis consists of the following parts: introduction, four main chapters and conclusion. The introduction presents the current studies home and abroad of the three writers and their works. The first chapter traces back the conception of wilderness. It concludes the history of wilderness conception by analyzing its etymological meaning, metaphorical meaning, and practical meaning. Chapter two witnesses the change of wilderness meaning from traditional definition, revealing the spatial alienation and identity isolation that the new wilderness brings. Wilderness is an antagonist with the first contact, resulting in human being’s rejection of actuality. Chapter three describes wilderness as a nurturer. By further contact with human beings, wilderness becomes a nurturer that endows women with abilities and virtue, thus women start to find their own value. In the meantime, wilderness shows its female character by its beauty. Chapter four depicts wilderness as a multi-cultural community. Wilderness is neither the mere natural landscape, nor the “other” for people, but a comprehensive conception concerning environment, society and individual. Human beings begin to build the “sense of place” co-existing with wilderness and perceive the meaning of ecological responsibility.In conclusion, the main idea of this thesis is stressed again, pointing the big changes of wilderness in the mature period of American modernization. It changes from the antagonist to nurturer, and finally becomes a multi-cultural community with female characters.