An Analysis Of Life & Times Of Michael K From The Perspective Of Eco-criticism

John Maxwell Coetzee has twice won the Booker Prize.In 2003,he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his “well-crafted composition,pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance” and became the second South African writer to succeed this award after Nadine Gordimer.His Booker Prize work Life & Times of Michael K reproduces the destruction of environment by the development of colonialism in South Africa,especially the destruction of plants and animals.Previous studies have mostly analyzed K's silence and resistance,free spirit and salvation from the perspective of post-colonialism,which has certain limitations.Based on literature review,this paper analyzes the relationship between human and land,human and animals,human and plants throughout the novel by applying Leopold's land ethics and Naess' s deep ecology from the perspective of eco-criticism,which aims to analyze the ecological view of Coetzee.This paper consists of five parts,the first chapter briefly introduces the writer Coetzee and his novel Life & Times of Michael K,and reviews the current research status of the text at home and abroad.It elaborates the theory of eco-criticism and gives a brief overview of Leopold's land ethics and Naess' s deep ecology.The second chapter,based on Leopold's land ethics,analyzes the relationship between man and land in the novel,and shows that man and land are mutually dependent.Once the bond between man and land is separated,human beings will be punished by nature.On the contrary,if human beings love the land,human beings will be sheltered by the land.By applying Naess' s deep ecology,the relationship between human beings and animals is discussed in Chapter Three.It calls on human beings to respect animals and live in harmony with animals so that human beings can maintain a sustainable state of development.The fourth chapter continues to apply Naess' s deep ecology to analyze the relationship between human beings with plants and K's ecological subconscious in light of the two highest standards of deep ecology,namely,Self-realization and Bio-centric equality.From human's destruction of plants during the war,it shows that human beings should adhere to the idea of Self-realization at any time,and constantly surpass the ecological self to move towards ecological Self,thus maintaining biological diversity.The fifth chapter summarizes the paper and points out thelimitations and development space of this paper.Through the analysis of the relationship between people and land,animals as well as plants,it calls on human beings to abandon anthropocentrism.Mankind should realize that human beings,animals,plants,land and other lives are living in a community,interdependent with each other in nature.Only if mankind adhere to the idea of ecological Self and respect the diversity of species can human beings live in harmony with nature and realize their own long-term development goals.