A Study Of Ecofeminist Utopia In Refuge:An Unnatural History Of Family And Place

Terry Tempest Williams is an excellent American writer and naturalist of modern and contemporary age.Brought up within the sight of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge,she is inclined to have a remarkable affinity for nature.The special affection easily drives her to become engaged in protecting nature.Her writing is deeply rooted in it,and is greatly affected by its arid landscape and Mormon culture.At the same time,Williams witnesses and experiences the physical and spiritual harm brought by nuclear test explosion carried out in Nevada Nuclear Test Site,and this life experience leads her to become a feminist.Later on,Williams tries her best to awaken the readers to protect the environment and care for females.As the representative work of Terry Tempest Williams,Refuge was first published in 1991.It contains two plot lines,one is Diane being diagnosed with ovarian cancer,her condition deteriorating and passing away;the other is the rising water levels of Great Salt Lake and the flooding of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge which plays the role of the refuge for birds in Utah.Williams tells the story about her family's struggle with cancer as a result of living downwind from a nuclear test site.Human tragedies and natural tragedies put on the stage at the same time.In addition,Refuge is considered to be a book that represents Williams' ecofeminist consciousness,so ecofeminists see it as one of the representatives of their school.The thesis is made up of three parts: introduction,body and conclusion.The introduction takes on Williams and her works in general,and makes a collection of the previous studies on her well-known book Refuge.Later the conception of ecofeminism is presently clearly.This part concludes with the idea that it is viable to analyze Refuge from the perspective of ecofeminism.The body is composed by the following three chapters.Chapter One aims at deeply exploring the anthropocentrism which plays one of the most important roles in binary systems that ecofeminism opposes strongly.Humans damage the natural environment for their own benefits.Their oppression on nature goes beyond the tolerance of nature,and nature takes vengeance on human society in return.It disrupts production of humans and threatens economic progress and health of humans,especially females.Chapter Two focuses on the androcentrism,which is the other important part of the binary systems that ecofeminism mainly objects to.In patriarchay females have a subordinate status and play their role as the Other.And Mormonism also advocates that authority is respected and obedience is reserved.Suffering from the cancer caused by the nuclear tests,females even just blindly accept it.Later on,female consciousness awakens,and they begin to stand up to defend themselves.They appeal to the society to provide more care and love for both female themselves and nature.Chapter Three explores female physical and spiritual intimacy with nature.The similar characteristics,the same inferior position and tragic fate of females and nature in patriarchy make females more intimate and closer to nature than males.Williams sees females as nature,and considers nature as females in turn.Nature becomes not only female physical refuge,but also spiritual refuge from which females can draw spiritual power.It is the oneness of females and nature that contributes to the establishment of the harmonious econfeminist utopia.The part of conclusion expounds the thought of Williams.Williams has conceived an ecofeminist utopia out of anthropocentrism and androcentrism where every life form lives harmoniously.It appeals to human beings to terminate patriarchy,approach nature,unite with nature and care for females.Only through these ways can humans harmonize their relationship with nature,and help to resolve ecological crisis,thus improving the sustainable development of both nature and human society and promote a harmonious and happy ecofeminist utopia.