An Analysis Of Ecological Harmony In The Diaries Of Jane Somers From The Perspective Of Eco-Feminism

Doris Lessing is one of the most famous female writers in modern Britain.She has created a large number of works during her whole lifetime,covering a wide range of topics,including racial conflicts,gender relations,and youth violence.Especially,the female problem is the core of her attention.Many of her works embody the concept of harmony between man and nature and among people.In the beginning,Lessing's works are based on the Southern African colony.Her early works mainly focus on colonialism and racism.In the medium term,she sets out to study human issues,especially women's emotion and psychology.Lessing thinks that feminism is just to discuss the relationship between men and women simply.At the later stage,Lessing begins to write science fictions,which are full of mysticism.The Diaries of Jane Somers is Lessing's first work after she reclaimed the voice of realism.It serves as a link between past and future in Lessing's entire writing career occupying an important position.Eco-feminism came out in the 1970 s,providing a special cultural context for literary criticism.From a unique feminist and gender perspective,it mainly studies the relationship between women and nature and between human and nature.Eco-feminism originates in the background of the complex relationship between controlling women and conquering nature.It is a combination of women movement and environmental movement,but also a philosophical view and a cultural theory to see the world.Previously,feminism and identity construction were main research angles of Lessing's works.Eco-feminist literary criticism provides another method to research Lessing's works.Based on this literary criticism theory,this thesis takes The Diaries of Jane Somers as the research text,analyzing Jane's social contacts with different people,the experiences of other characters in this book and discussing Lessing's ecological care and harmonious consciousness.This thesis consists of an introduction,the main body,and a conclusion.Its main contents are as follows:The first part is an introduction,which mainly gives a brief introduction to Doris Lessing's experience and her major works,the main content of The Diaries of JaneSomers and the research status both overseas and domestic.In the meantime,it points out the great significance of the analysis on The Diaries of Jane Somers from the perspective of eco-feminism.The second part is the main body,which is made up of four chapters:Chapter One mainly introduces the emergence and development and leading opinions of eco-feminism.Meanwhile,it analyzes Lessing's consciousness of eco-feminism in her works.The standards of eco-feminism in evaluating literature are the female principle and ecological principle.Eco-feminists approve the works reflecting the harmonious and stable world and containing sympathetic educational awareness but criticize the literary orientation of male domination and patriarchal supremacy.Through the eco-feminist consciousness showed in Lessing's works,this thesis reveals the importance of equality and harmony to human development.Chapter Two mainly analyzes the core topic of eco-feminist literary criticism,the relationship between nature and women,based on The Diaries of Jane Somers.It reveals the inner link between women and nature in symbolic level.Nature in literary works usually is personalized as a mother,an image of a maternal feeder.The female has mystique as nature since ancient Greece.Women have unique natural attributes of sympathy and affection.It discusses Jane's naturalized female charm in the relationships between Jane and other people.In her connection with Maudie,Jane is keenly aware of a mother's care for her children,which just like Mother Nature's love for all the living things.In contact with her sister's daughters,Jane also serves as a mother.She enlightens Jill and Kate in their growing up.In love with Richard,Jane learns how to be a qualified love partner in life.She knows how to listen to Richard's grief and comfort Richard who is helpless.Jane gradually overcomes all these conflicts among different roles and eventually becomes a woman with natural attributes.Chapter Three focuses on the experience of female and nature in patriarchal society.The oppression of female from male and oppression of nature at will from human are the main concerns of eco-feminism.Female and nature are both subordinate to the patriarchal framework.It chooses the two kinds of female characters in The Diaries of Jane Somers.The first includes that women represented by Georgie,they are always trapped in the shackles of their husbands and children after marriage.The secondincludes the professional women represented by Jane and Sylvia.They are free from the constraints of their families and husbands,striving for the life they want.By analyzing the two types of women,it appeals human beings to establish a harmonious and equal relationship between men and women.It also points out that the true liberation of women is not to get rid of or to be above the male.It is important to be an equal subject of dominant dialogues as men for women.Chapter Four mainly introduces gender equality and ecological harmony,revealing the significant importance of establishing a harmonious coexistence between man and nature,and the equal dialogue between men and women in the course of world development.The last part is the conclusion,which makes a summary of the preceding critique,and points out the main purpose of this thesis.Proceeding from eco-feminism,this thesis explores issues of gender equality and ecological harmony to urge people to pay attention to the female survival situation.