An Ecofeminist Analysis on Willa Cather’s O Pioneers【毕业论文】.doc

1、毕业论文 文客久久 本科 毕业论文 (设计 ) 题 目： An Ecofeminist Analysis on Willa Cathers O Pioneers 学 院： 学生姓名： 专 业： 英语 班 级： 指导教师： 起 止 日期： 毕业论文 文客久久 Contents Abstract . 2 Introduction. 3 1. A Brief Introduction to Ecofeminism . 4 1.1 The Definition of Ecofeminism . 4 1.2 The Introduction of Ecofeminist Literary Critici

2、sm . 6 2. The Conqueror of Nature . 7 2.1 The Masculine Heroine. 8 2.1.1 The Masculine Image. 8 2.1.2 Repressive Emotion . 9 2.2 The Exploiting of Nature . 10 2.2.1 Conquering Nature for Wealth . 10 2.2.2 The Inheritance of Land.11 3. Return to Nature The Protector of Nature . 12 3.1 Vague Female Id

3、entity . 12 3.2 Awakening of Female Self . 13 3.2.1 Harmony With Nature. 13 3.2.2 Harmony Between Women and Men . 14 3.3 The Real Mistress . 14 Conclusion . 16 References . 17 毕业论文 1 摘要 薇拉凯瑟是 20 世纪初最杰出的女 性作家之一。在她的生涯中创作了 12 部长篇小说， 2部短篇小说和大量的散文和诗歌，她的作品已经从多方面的角度被阐述。作为当今世界最重要的美国妇女作家之一，薇拉凯瑟用自己的方式影响着美国文学。

4、相对于当时流行的亨利詹姆斯的沙龙风格，她的内布拉斯加小说带来了一股清新的气息。她对西部内布拉斯加州和土地的怀旧情怀推动了她描述这片土地上的先锋女性和先锋精神。直到今天，她依然是描述美好和真挚生活的女作家之一。 啊，拓荒者！是凯瑟的特别重要的一部作品，作品的主要情节的发展是围绕女主人公亚历山德拉展开，她牺牲了自己的青春 和爱情投入到了辛勤的劳动，最终获得成功并且找到一个理想的丈夫。相反，她年轻的弟弟埃米尔爱上了邻居的妻子玛丽。当丈夫最终发现他们的事情后，他愤怒地杀死了他们两个。除了这两个故事之外，凯瑟还满怀激情地描述了草原边境的无限美丽和精神恩惠。 生态女性主义融合了女权主义和生态批评，并尝试突

5、出男权社会对女性和自然的双重压迫。基于这样的认识，本文从生态女性主义角度分析女主人公和小说的主题。在有了一个全面的女性拓荒者的研究下，本论文得出薇拉凯瑟通过女性与自然的关系展现了明确的生态女性主义意识，通过与大自然逐渐地认同与融合 ，女主人公打破了男权意识，追求女性的独立并与自然和谐相处。 关键词 女性意识；生态女性主义；融合自然 毕业论文 2 Abstract Willa Cather (1873-1947) is one of the most outstanding female writers in the early 20th century. During her career C

6、ather has produced twelve novels, two volumes of short stories, and numerous essays and poems. Her works have been interpreted from a wide variety of angles. As one of the foremost American women writers of the modern world, Willa Cather has influenced the American literature in her own way. Her ear

7、ly Nebraska novels brought a fresh air to the prevailing over-elaborate salon style of Henry James. Her nostalgic memory of the west Nebraska and the land gave her impulses to describe the landscape, the pioneer women, and the unyielding pioneer sprits. Until today she is still one of those writers

8、who tell of life with beauty and entire earnestness. O Pioneers! is special important work to Cather. The main plot of the work develops around Alexandra Bergson, a determined female immigrant, who sacrificed her youth and love for the cultivation and land before she eventually succeeded and married

9、 an ideal husband. In contrast, her younger brother Emil fell in love with Marie Shabata, wife of an envious Bohemian neighbor. When the husband finally found out their affair, he killed the two in fury. Apart from the two stories, Cather also depicted with passion the extraordinary beauty and spiri

10、tual grace of the prairie frontier. As the union of feminism and ecocriticism, ecofeminism brings together the insights of both fields and attempts to highlight the dual oppression of women and nature in a patriarchal society. Based on such understanding, ecofeminism analyzes the connection between

11、nature and women . With a comprehensive study of the female pioneer, this thesis concludes Willa Cather shows clear ecofeminist consciousness by connecting women with nature. Through gradual identification with nature, the heroine broke the binding masculinity, pursued womens independence and lived

12、with nature harmoniously. Key Words female consciousness; ecofeminism; identification with nature 毕业论文 3 An Ecofeminist Analysis on Willa Cathers O Pioneers Introduction Willa Cather is one of the most prominent female writers in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the tw

13、entieth century. Her works have been interpreted from a wide variety of angles. As one of the foremost American women writers of the modern world, Willa Cather has influenced the American literature in her own way. Her famous Nebraska novels include O Pioneers! (1913), My Antonia (1918) and the Puli

14、tzer winner One of Ours (1992). In these novels Cather describes the hard life of the early pioneers who settle on the western America. In view of her extraordinary accomplishments and outstanding achievements in literary creation, Willa Cather deserved to win a distinguished reputation and prominen

15、t position from 1917 to 1931, many well-known institution of higher learning in the United States such as Nebraska, Michigan Science, Columbia University, Clayton University, Yale University, Princeton University and University of California have granted her the title of Doctor. At the same time, Wi

16、lla Cather has the honor to win Pulitzer Prize in 1923, Howells Prize in 1930 and American Women Writer Prize in 1937. In 1944, Willa Cather served as the U.S. National Academy of literary and artistic researchers. In the book 16th Party Congress in 1944 which is published in 1974, she was the only

17、woman writer. In recent years, Willa Cathers works increasingly receive the attention of the western literary critics and get high reputation, and many reviewers think Willa Cather is as famous as some Americas most distinguished novelists such as Henry James, William Faulkner, Hemingway and F Scott

18、 Fitzgerald, even regard her as the greatest female writer in the United States since the founding. In many of her works, whats the important one for her is O Pioneers!. Because this work is written based on her own experience of living in the border and the understanding of migrants. Whats more, it

19、 embodies the courage and strength of the pioneers. It describes the entrepreneurial life of the Eastern European and Scandinavian immigrants move to the American frontier. It is a true description of the different ethnic and cultural background of pioneers hard and ordinary life. The work gives pro

20、minence to describe a strong female image whose name is Alexandra. She is a strong and 毕业论文 4 stubborn woman, and her youth and love are devoted to cultivation and land. At last, she succeeded in creating her enterprise, meanwhile, she found her own love and improved herself. This thesis tries to an

21、alyse the change of heroines attitude towards the land and the people around her based on ecofeminism, to reflect her ecofeminist consciousness and conclude that women and men, human and nature should have a harmonious relationship. 1. A Brief Introduction to Ecofeminism Ecofeminism is a theory emer

22、ged in the 1970s and 1980s as an interpretation of feminism and ecology. It has developed from various fields of feminist inquiry and activism: peace movement, labor movement, womens health care, and the anti-nuclear, environmental, and animal liberation movements (Gaard,1998:1). The term is mention

23、ed by French scholar Francoise d Eaubonne in her book Le Feminisme ou la Mort. At present, many feminists care about the environment, many environmentalists are concerned with womens issues and some science historians have used this term in different way. So ecofeminism develops rapidly in the weste

24、rn countries as a new trend of thought, especially in the feminist movement or environmental movement in France, Germany, Netherlands and America. Ecofeminism is the combination of womens emancipation and protection of natural ecological movement, whose purpose is to reveal the close connection betw

25、een ruling woman and ruling nature in the field of human thought and social structures. It marks that the Western feminist movement develops into a new level. 1.1 The Definition of Ecofeminism Ecofeminism is a theory emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as an interpretation of feminism and ecology. In 197

26、4, the French feminists Ao Boni used “ecofeminism” for the first time, it is marked ecological study of the originator of feminist theory, the practice that ecological Perspective fits into the feminist movement has created ecofeminism. (Wang, 2010: 25) Ecofeminism critique the knowledge framework o

27、f male-centered, the goal is to establish a utopia which follows ecological doctrine and the principles of feminism. Ecofeminist advocates the combination of natural worlds 毕业论文 5 spirit and Feminism, so it is not only a feminist theory but also a kind of ecological theory, meanwhile its also a mult

28、i-cultural perspective. Ecofeminism is also a holistic value system. Some basic precepts to which most ecofeminists would subscribe are set out below: (1) Life on earth is an interconnected web, not a hierarchy. (2) Everything in nature has intrinsic value. (3) Humans should not attempt to “manage”

29、or control nonhuman nature, but should work with the land. Human beings should love and respect the land. The role of human beings should be plain member and citizen of land instead of conqueror of it. (4) We must integrate the false dualisms that are based on the male/female polarity. The dualistic

30、 conceptual framework of Patriarchy supports the ethic of dominance and divides us against each other, our “selves”, and nonhuman nature. (5) The personal is political. We must work to rebalance the masculine and feminine in ourselves and society. (Gaard, 1998: 12) Ones attitude towards this relatio

31、nship between the women and nature reflects ones ideology. Ecofeminism points out that the root of the oppression is androcentrism which works in a pattern of binary opposition: self and other. “The self/other pattern of relationship among individuals even extends to the relationship of human beings

32、 and nature. As a result, women are debased because they are the other of men; and nature is debased because it is the other of human beings. Nature is always feminized and women are always naturalized. The land and the female body have nearly become the simulation of each other, both indicating the

33、 image of a vessel waiting for mens planting seeds.” (Gaard, 1998: 236) Therefore, the essence of the relationship between women and nature is the female otherness. We can draw a conclusion that ones attitude toward women is usually the same as that toward nature. Whats more, ecofeminism as an integ

34、ration of feminist and green ecological idea sees the exploitation of nature as lying in the patriarchal system that emphasizes exploitation and oppression of nature; it embraces womens interconnectedness and interdependence with nature. Ecofeminism offers a good vantage point to confronting patriar

35、chal domination of nature by stressing an elemental identification and alliance 毕业论文 6 between women and nature. (Fu To read literature in an ecofeminist perspective, mainly womens literature; To examine nature writing as a marginal branches and feminine literary genre, making the nature writing ran

36、k in the ranks of classic in the traditional literature through the application of ecological feminist literary theory. Following feminist criticism, then gradually establish an ecofeminist criticism. From these discussions, we can see that the literary criticism of ecofeminism was a new current of

37、literature and art thought which rose on the basis of feminism criticism under a special circumstance where the environment was deteriorating and the ecologic crisis was becoming more and more serious. Such kind of rise was realized with the help of the historical trend of the world feminism campaig

38、ns in a long time. The ecofeminism literary criticism proceeded in different aspects of nature, environment and gender. It put literary criticism in the context of sexism and ecological crisis and studied within the combination of gender, nature, literature and culture. It opposed the discrimination

39、 of species and gender, challenged and deconstructed the binary concept generally existing in the western culture and criticized the anthropocentrism and patriarchy-center culture. The purpose of literary criticism of ecofeminism is to reexamine and put literary creation and then the whole human cul

40、ture into perspective by studying, change the nature and female status of “otherness” and “marginalization” and awaken peoples awareness of ecological entirety and sexual equality, finally to establish a society where there is equality of genders and species, harmony between genders and between huma

41、n society and natural creatures, a colorful and vibrant world where culture diversity and biodiversity coexist. “Ecofeminist literary 毕业论文 7 criticism is the study of the relationship bet, literature, culture, nature and women. Ecofeminism, approaching literary studies from the double perspectives o

42、f nature and gender, aims to reconsider and criticize culture, change nature and womans position as an other and margin, arouse peoples ecological and feminist consciousness. Its literary practice includes the following: looking for the absence of nature and women, reinterpreting literary works, rec

43、onsidering culture, and constructing eco-feminist literary theory. Ecofeminist literary criticism injects vitality and vigor into literary studies with its openness and interdisciplinarity. Its literary practice will help people change their outlooks on nature and woman, and therefore realize sustainable development.” (Chen, 2006: 111) In this sense, the theory and practice of the criticism to this concept of the ecofeminism literary will promote the academic world to reevaluate and re-constructed the classical literature in ecological and fem