An Ecological Stylistic Analysis Of Climate Fiction

Ecological stylistics,as a branch of stylistics,combines the analytical methods of stylistics and the ideas of ecocriticism.It mainly analyzes the stylistic features of the text from the perspective of ecocriticism to reveal the ecological concepts hidden in the stylistic features.As a new literature genre,climate fiction is always created with the theme of dystopia,focusing on catastrophes human beings would encounter,playing a warning role in dealing with the coming dangers of global warming,sea level rise and ecological crisis etc.It promotes readers' connection with environmental crisis and helps them pay attention to the harmful effects of environmental destruction,so as to stimulate their ecological awareness of environmental protection.The Windup Girl is the debut of Paolo Bacigalupi,a rising star in the contemporary American science fiction.As soon as it was published,the novel,which describes the environmental crisis in the future world,won almost all the fantasy literature awards and it was also selected as one of “The Top Ten Novels of the Year ”by Time Magazine in 2009.Many scholars at home and abroad have made some studies about The Windup Girl,but these studies are mainly interpreted from the perspectives of cross-culture and ecofeminism,some of them try to illustrate the practical significance of those ecological components,analysis from ecological stylistics is rarely involved.Based on the theory of meta-functions in systemic-functional linguistics,this study attempts to analyze the ecological stylistic features of The Windup Girl,so as to study the stylistic features of the novel,explore how the use of language constructs social reality and ecological concepts and reveal the ecological significance of climate fiction.For the ideational function,from the transitivity analysis of the megodonts,the genetic modified elephants,and Emiko,the genetic modified human girl,it is found that the material process and behavioral process are the main processes to describe megodonts,which reflect people's oppression and their plight.For Emiko,materialprocess and relational process take a large proportion.The material processes are mainly used to describe people's discrimination,humiliation and the genetic modification of Emiko's body to satisfy their own private desires,and the relational processes are employed to express people's attitude towards Emiko: regarding her as a plaything or private property,rather than an independent person.In interpersonal function,mood and modality are analyzed respectively in conversations between Anderson and Emiko as well as between Raleigh and Emiko.The analysis finds that Anderson tends to use indicative and interrogative clauses with median or low value modal operators to comfort Emiko and make his statements soft,while Raleigh always uses imperative clauses in his conversations to maintain his dominant position.Through comparison,the individualism and materialism are criticized and the significance of harmonious interpersonal relationship to ecological stability is revealed.Analysis from the textual function has found that the author often uses repetition as a cohesive device to present the severity of ecological crisis,and among all the thematic progression patterns,linear constant theme pattern,constant theme pattern and constant rheme pattern are mostly used to show the relationship between man and nature,highlighting the importance of nature for people's living.Therefore,through the ecological stylistic analysis of The Windup Girl based on the three metafunctions,the Bacigalupi's ecological ideology about the relationship between man and nature,man and man,man and technology is revealed,i.e.nature is a part of human beings,any mistreatment will trigger the revenge of nature and the tragedy of human beings;all men are created equal and the sincere interpersonal relationship is the foundation of the harmonious development of social and ecology;the misuse of technology will accelerate the extinction of human beings.