On Deconstruction Inclinations In Gary Snyder's Mountains And Rivers Without End

Gary Snyder(1930-) is a renowned American poet, essayist, Zen practitioner and environmentalist. His Mountains and Rivers Without End, a collection of poems published in 1996, is profound in theme and rich in content. The whole book contains thirty-nine poems, weaving together many elements including but not limited to: Zen, mythology, N? drama, geology, biology, landscape painting, recollection and dreams. It not only expresses Snyder's constant ecological concerns but also shows the characteristics of diversity and openness.This thesis employs French philosopher Jacques Derrida's deconstruction theory as its theoretical basis. It mainly discusses Snyder 's deconstructive thought and his use of deconstructive strategies embedded in Mountains and Rivers Without End. Hence, two main aspects are examined within the text. Firstly, through study, this thesis maintains that the thought of anti-anthropocentrism contained in the book is an embodiment of anti-logocentrism, which lies in two facts: indirectly dispelling anthropocentrism by abundantly writing nature and directly demonstrating errors of anthropocentrism. Secondly, this thesis articulates that supplement and intertextuality, as main deconstructive strategies, are adopted in composition. Supplement encourages readers to understand and interpret this poetic book from multiple perspectives, so that diverse meanings hidden in the poems are explored. Intertextuality breaks the border between Mountains and Rivers Without End and other texts and the border between Mountains and Rivers Without End and the outside world, which obviously expands the book's range and makes its language become more tensed and meaningful. In this respect, both supplement and intertextuality make a real contribution to achieve the artistic effect of endlessness, deliberately in accordance with the name of Mountains and Rivers Without End.Through textual analysis, it is hoped that this case study will provide a practical paradigm for analyzing Gary Snyder's poems from the perspective of postmodern theories.