An Analysis Of Toni Morrison's A Mercy From The Perspective Of Eco-feminism

A Mercy is the ninth novel written by the African-American writer Toni Morrison,the Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1993.Since the publication of the novel in 2008,its profound thoughts and superb creative skills have aroused the attention of all circles,and domestic and foreign literary critics have carried out a variety of its interpretations.Considering the fact that the research of eco-feminism in our country is in the stage of development in theory and practice,and the eco-feminist interpretation of A Mercy is relatively few,this thesis attempts to analyze A Mercy from the perspective of eco-feminism,exploring the relationship between human exploitation of nature and men's oppression on women in the patriarchal society and deconstructing the binary oppositions between mankind and nature,men and women under the patriarchal conceptual framework,to create harmonious coexistence among human beings,men and women.It consists of the following five chapters,including the introduction and conclusion.Chapter one includes a brief introduction of Toni Morrison and the novel A Mercy,as well as a literature review at home and abroad and the research significance.Chapter two is about the theoretical framework—eco-feminism,including the definitions of eco-feminism,the emergence and development of eco-feminism and three theoretical visions of eco-feminism,namely philosophical eco-feminism,cultural eco-feminism and social eco-feminism.Chapter three analyzes the intimate relationship between women and nature and men's exploitation of nature leading to self-destruction to explore the interdependence between humans and nature,and to deconstruct the binary opposition between humans and nature under the patriarchal conceptual framework,pointing that only by recognizing nature's subject identity human beings can obtain inspiration,wisdom and power from nature.Chapter four analyzes the men's oppression on women and women's pursuit of self-identity with the power from nature in the patriarchal society to explore the interdependence between men and women,and to deconstruct the binary opposition between men and women under the patriarchal conceptual framework,pointing out that only by respecting,understanding,and treating women equally with themselves,men are able to achieve a happy living state.Chapter five presents a short conclusion of the thesis.An analysis of Toni Morrison's eco-feminist consciousness embodied in the novel not only contributes to the study of Morrison's works in our country,but provides us with lots of useful inspiration for facing today's increasingly serious environmental problems,easing ecological crisis,realizing the liberation of women and establishing a balanced,stable,harmonious and pluralistic society.