A Study Of Ecological Thoughts In Mary Oliver's Poems From The Perspective Of Ecocriticism

With ecological holism being its ideological foundation,ecocriticism studies the relationship between humans and nonhuman environment in literary works.Emerging as a response to increasingly severe ecological crisis,ecocriticism aims to uncover ecological consciousness and to investigate into ideological culture that causes ecological crisis so as to reestablish harmony between man and nature.Mary Oliver,a well-known contemporary American poet,advocates harmony between man and nature.Oliver carries nature back to poems with her close observation of nature and creative language craft.Meanwhile,based on nature,Oliver integrates her thinking on life into her poems,through which her rich ecological thoughts are presented.Previous studies on Oliver's poems are mainly reviews of poetry collections,Chinese translation of her poems,and researches on her humanistic thoughts from the perspective of romanticism,feminism,theology,etc.And only a few scholars have delved into her humanistic thinking from the perspective of ecocriticism.This thesis is intended to explore ecological thoughts in Oliver's poems from the perspective of ecocriticism through an interdisciplinary approach and intensive reading of the text of her poems.Through the ecological interpretation of nature,lifestyle and death reflected in Oliver's poems,the major findings of this thesis are as follows: First,Oliver's poems are filled with diverse natural things.Everything in nature has its own particular original beauty that is independent of human preference,which reveals the ecological thought of appreciation of primitive beauty of nature.Everything in Oliver's poems has a soul or spiritual essence,which shows the ecological thought of animism.Affirming lives of animals and plants,praising the vitality of each life and expanding moral concerns to the entire natural world,Oliver exhibits the ecological thought of reverence for life in her poems.Appreciation of primitive beauty of nature,belief in animism and reverence for life construct Oliver's ecological thought on nature.Second,Oliver calls for going back to nature physically,experiencing nature and mentally immersing into nature in her poems,which reflects the ecological lifestyle of returning to nature.Meanwhile,by advocating simple material life and enriching spiritual life,Oliver displays the ecological lifestyle of living a simple life.The advocacy of returning to nature and living a simple life reflects her ecological thought on lifestyle.Finally,in Oliver's poems,death of lives,withering of plants and killings and hunting among animals are common phenomena in ecosystem.This uncovers the ecological thought that death is the law of nature.There are always life and death.Death offers energy to ecosystem,contributes to energy exchange,and nurtures everything in nature,which discloses the ecological thought that death means recycle of energy and death is rebirth of life.Considering death as law of nature,recycle of energy and rebirth of life completes her ecological thought on death in her poems.The depiction of natural things,the advocacy of ecological lifestyle and interpretation of death in Oliver's poems aim at establishing harmonious relationship between man and nature,and therefore are ecological holistic thinking.Oliver is definitely an ecopoet.Her ecological thoughts are referential to modern society,helping us revalue our way of being and our social culture,build ecological consciousness,and reestablish harmony between man and nature.