An Interpretation Of Brink’s Ecofeminist Consciousness From An Instant In The Wind

Being one of the most prestigious writers in South Africa, André Brink is acclaimed over the world for his valorous spirit of resistance, various narrative techniques and giant literary achievements. As Brink’s early masterpiece, An Instant in the Wind reveals the distinctive ecofeminist consciousness of a white male writer. Set in the 1970 s of South African apartheid era, Brink intertwines the themes of love, existence and race, with the highlighted triple relationships of men and women, the black and the white as well as human and Nature in South African society. The depiction of the interracial love between the white woman Elisabeth and the slave Adam is regarded as an Edenic transcendence over apartheid system. From the perspectives of ecofeminism, Foucault’s micro-power theory and Frye’s archetypal criticism, this thesis exposes the pathetic plight of women and Nature profoundly and also conducts a deep interrogation into the specific connotation of Brink’s ecofeminist consciousness.The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One makes a brief generalization of André Brink, the novel, literature review at home and abroad along with the significance of this novel, establishing the theoretical foundation and the structure of the thesis.The body is composed of three chapters. Chapter Two based on the intimate correlation of women and Nature in terms of symbol, experience and status, deeply interpreting the dual domination over women and Nature in patriarchal society. Chapter Three elucidates women’s resistance against patriarchy and Nature’s punishment on human. Women’s resistances embody in Elisabeth’s behaviors including smashing marriage shackles, escaping into the nature and pursuing the independent self. Nature’s punishments consist of Larsson’s death, Elisabeth’s miscarriage in the wilderness and the returning journey with incessant dangers. Chapter Four, through reconstructing of the ideal image of women, ecological prospect of Nature and harmonious racial relation, demonstrates Brink’s ideal vision of an ecofeminist world between men and women, the black and the white as well as human and Nature.Chapter Five is the conclusion. This novel concentrates on Brink’s deep concern on the fettered plight of South African women, the historical writing of Nature’s colonization and retrospection of the origins of intense racial conflicts. By means of the exhaustive interpretation, this thesis aims to manifest Brink’s profound concern and introspection in terms of ecological crisis, women and racial conflicts in contemporary South African society, unfolding his strong expectations for constructing a new South Africa.