Moving Forward While Watching—an Analysis Of Jeanette Winterson's Lighthousekeeping From The Perspective Of Ecocriticism

Jeannette Winterson is unique in contemporary British literature.Her unabashed and egotistical personality,as well as her works have attracted much attention,thus she was considered as “one of the most controversial novelists” in the British contemporary.However,there is no doubt that she is quite prolific with concise,humorous,poetic and imaginative language and unique narrative techniques as well.It is no wonder that she became very popular among readers both at home and abroad.As the eighth novel written by Winterson,Lighthousekeeping won the “Commonwealth Writers Prize” and was also awarded “the best foreign novel of the 21 st century” in 2004.The story occurred in a lonely seaside coastal town in Scotland,telling the stories between the protagonist Silver and a lighthouse keeper Pew,alternating with the story of Babel Dark and Molly.Throughout the whole novel,the complicated relationships between man and nature,man and society,as well as man and his inner world can be easily revealed between the lines.In view of this,this thesis develops a new angle to focus on these three relationships,with the protagonists' growing process and the story as the main line from the perspective of ecocriticism.Based on these,this dissertation takes trichotomy of ecocriticism as theoretical foundation and employs Winterson's novel Lighthousekeeping as the research text,starting respectively from the perspectives of natural ecology,social ecology and spiritual ecology to analyze the complex relationships between man and nature,man and society,and man and his inner world of the main characters.Thus,the protest and concession of human beings in the face of nature,the confusion and struggle in social life,as well as the lost and growth in the inner world of oneself are meticulously and cunningly exposed in front of readers.Fundamentally,the stories,whether told by the heroine Silver or the lighthouse keeper Pew,all reflect the long process from conflicts to harmonies between man and nature,man and society,man and his inner world without exception,resulting in the readers' scanning and deep thinking of nature,society and spiritual world.