English Eco-literature.doc

English Eco-literatureI. The Beginning of English Eco-literature1. Brief Introduction to Eco-literatureAlthough it is difficult to tell for sure when English eco-literature began, no one can deny that English literature is one of the first to have eco-literature. The dispute over the beginning of eco-literature mainly rests on the understanding of this literary genre. The unsettlement is due to the different identifications of the scope. In broad sense, eco-literature refers to the literature that observes and demonstrates the relationship between human beings and the nature, while in narrow sense eco-literature is believed to be accompanied by environmental problems arising from the fast development of agriculture and especially of industry without much consideration for the endurance of the nature. Eco-literature is identified as a new literary genre only after eco-criticism appeared in early 1990s in the United States of America when human beings were faced with the worsening global environmental crisis. Eco-criticism, in Cheryll Glotfelty's words, aims to explore the relationship between literature and the natural environment. As the leading advocator and initiator of eco-criticism in the world Cheryll Glotfelty states that eco-criticism applies the earth-centered ideology to the study of literature with the aim of exploring the relationship between literature and the natural environment. With the wide spread of eco-criticism eco-literature as a new literary genre took shape and it develops quickly and now it is accepted in the literary world. Since the main task of eco-criticism is to re-examine human culture through literary works to find out the defects of culture, to explore how human thoughts, culture and models of social developments influence or even determine humans' attitudes and behaviors towards nature, and how they lead to environmental deterioration and ecological crises, any literary work concerning the relationship between man and natural environment can be said to be a part of eco-literature.II. English Eco-literature in Three Periods 1. Early Eco-literature in EnglandNot only modern and contemporary English literature has ecological implication, we can also find ecological connotation in early English literature. The first most important work in English literature, Beowulf, is a very typical example as a poem with rich ecological implication.Beowulf is an ancient long narrative poem which tells the hero Beowulf's three adventures, each of which involves a fight against Grendel, a male monster, Grendel's mother, a she-monster and a fire dragon. The poem is usually believed to be a national epic of the English people, but from the perspective of ecocriticism, it is a poem with ecological implication. During the reign of King Hrothgar in the land of the Danes, there lived a monster in his den. For many years the Danish and the monster were at peace but it came to an end after the king built a great hall called Heorot, where the nobles feasted and enjoyed tales chanted by scops. The hall was close to the monster's den and the terrible noise angered the monster. One night the furious monster could not bear the loud noise any longer. It came out of its den and appeared in the hall, killing thirty men successively. From then on, the monster haunted the land for about 12 years. The people of the land lived in terror and no one dared to come to the king's new hall.Many readers may naturally show much sympathy over those dead and troubled, but remember, it was the building of the king's hall which was too close to the animal's natural habitat that the monster sensed the human intrusion and the coming danger from the people. The noise from the hall all night drove the animal mad. If we say that many people became victims of the savagery attack by the monster, on second thought the monster was a victim, too, because the animal lost its own peaceful and quiet life after the building of the hall. When Beowulf heard about the monster he came to help the suffering Danish people. After fierce fight Beowulf finally killed the monster. The defeat of the monster signifies the first turn of victory in the combat with the nature, represented by Grendel. With the development of men's power men began to manipulate the natural world to satisfy their needs both physically and spiritually. The unchecked desire for more materials from the nature and reckless development without much consideration for the natural world incurred resistance from the nature. The conflict between men and the nature is inevitable. Although men may win in the first turn, the nature is always ready for the next attack for revenge. Just at the moment when there was a celebration of Beowulf's victory Grendel's mother came from the sea to avenge her dead son. The she-monster was more horrifying than Grendel. With great difficulty Beowulf won once again. The Danish king held a great feast to show respect to Beowulf and celebrate the big occasion. For another time men defeated the nature represented by Grendel's mother and there was peace and happy life after the battle, but the nature is hard to be controlled or subdued. Beowulf was made king of his own country, and his people enjoyed their life, but fifty years later, a fire dragon came out of its den belching fire. Many people died of fire and his homeland was ravaged. Many warriors were sent to fight against the horrible dragon but one after another they were either killed or badly wounded. The whole country was plunged into great horror. Beowulf，an old king over eighty, could not wait for the vicious dragon to further destroy his land and harm his people. The old king decided to take the challenge to fight against the fire dragon for his men. After several days of fierce fight the old king killed the fire dragon, but he was badly wounded. Several days later the respected king died. There was ritual to praise the king's great deeds at the end of the poem.Although the fire dragon was killed the old king also died after being fatally wounded. The fire dragon represents the third turn of attack from the nature on men. The attack is more violent than before. The fire dragon did not attack people before a man came into his den and stole the treasures there. Such an intrusion infuriated the animal. The angry dragon killed the thief and began to take revenge on men. Such an incident tells us that reckless development or invasion into the depth of the nature has unimaginably terrible consequences.Beowulf has been interpreted as the conquest of the hostile forces of the nature with the virtues of perseverance, bravery and physical strength, but from the three battles against Grendel, his mother and the fire dragon respectively we can clearly see the growing violence in their attack, indicating the worsening tension in the relationship between men and the nature. If such a tension could not be reduced on men's part the consequences would be unpredictable. Without much consideration for the rights of the nature, the victim of the tension can not be only the nature, but also human beings.2. Eco-literature in English Romantic PeriodFrom the perspective of ecocriticism, English Romantic poems are rich in ecological connotation. Critics have found ecological implication in the poems of all famous English Romantic poets. Byron's "Darkness" proposes that when ecosystem collapses, human bonds do so, too. Keat's "To Autumn” and Coleridge's "Frost at Midnight" are thinkings of our bonds with each other and the earth, thinkings of fragile, beautiful, necessary ecological wholeness. Of all Romantic poems some of William Blake's poems and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner are the most noteworthy in terms of ecoliterature.2.1 William Blake's EcopoemsThe nature is the main persona in many of English Romantic poems. In William Blake's poem The Ecchoing Green we see a picture of a harmonious coexistence of men and the nature. The Sun does arise,And make happy the skies.The merry bells ringTo welcome the Spring. The sky-lark and thrush,The birds of the bush, Sing louder around,To the bells chearful sound.While our sports shall be seenOn the Ecchoing Green.Old John with white hairDoes laugh away care,Sitting under the oak,Among the old folk,They laugh at our play, And soon they all say,Such such were the joysWhen we all girls & boys,In our youth-time were seen,On the Ecchoing Green.Till the little ones wearyNo more can be merryThe sun does descend,And our sports have an end:Round the laps of their mothers,Many sisters and brothers,Like birds in their nest,Are ready for rest;And sport no more seen,On the darkening Green.In the poem there is a wonderful environment for people both young and old. Any living being has its place in the universe and such a place is irreplaceable. Any life form has its intrinsic value. Human beings should respect any living being, for every life form, whether superior or inferior in intelligence, is equal. The Fly is a poem to illustrate such a viewpoint.Little FlyThy summers play,My thoughtless handHas brush'd away.Am not IA fly like thee?Or art not thouA man like me?In William Blake's eyes any living being has its value and significance in the world. Any life form is a member of the biological chain. In this chain any harm to any member is harm to the whole system. In Auguries of Innocence Blake shows the cost of ignorance of knowing nothing about the connection between all things in the world.The wanton Boy that kills the FlyShall feel the Spiders enmityHe who torments the Chafers spriteWeaves a Bower in endless NightThe Catterpiller on the LeafRepeats to thee thy Mothers griefKill not the Moth nor ButterflyIn William Blake's opinion any life form is equal, and therefore, human beings should treat them as their equals. Such an equal treatment of all living things can benefit human beings in return. The respect of other living beings is actually and finally respect of human beings themselves.上一页 1 2 下一页 2.1 Samuel Taylor Coleridge's EcopoetrySamuel Taylor Coleridge is also a great English Romantic poet with strong sense of ecology. His long narrative poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a classic ecopoem. The long poem can be said to be an ecological allegory that predicts the ecological disaster caused by men's unwise and reckless harm to the nature.The narrative poem relates the experiences of the old mariner who has returned from a long sea voyage. The sailor stops a man who is on the way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate his story. His tale begins with his ship departing on its journey. In spite of initial good fortune, the ship is driven south off course by a storm. When they eventually reach Antarctica, an albatross appears and leads them out of the Antarctic but, even as the albatross is praised by the ship's crew, the Mariner shoots the bird. The crew is angry with the Mariner, believing it was the albatross who brought the south wind that led them out of the Antarctic. However, the sailors change their minds when the weather becomes warmer and the mist disappears. But their support of this crime arouses the wrath of spirits who then pursue the ship "from the land of mist and snow" the south wind that had initially led them out of the land of ice now sends the ship into uncharted waters, where it is becalmed.Day after day, day after day,We stuck, nor breath nor motion;As idle as a painted shipUpon a painted ocean.Water, water, every where,And all the boards did shrink;Water, water, every where,Nor any drop to drink. Engraving by Gustave Doré for an 1876 edition of the poem. "The Albatross," depicts 17 sailors on the deck of a wooden ship facing an albatross. Icicles hang from the rigging.The nature is the nourisher and blessing giver for human beings, but the representative of the nature, the albatross is killed, which is men's ingratitude and incurs the nature's revenge. Although there is water everywhere, there's no any drop of water suitable for drinking. When all suffer from thirst, the sailors begin to change their minds again and blame the Mariner for the torment of their thirst. In anger, the crew forces the Mariner to wear the dead albatross about his neck, perhaps to show that he must suffer from killing it, or perhaps as a sign of regret. Later the ship encounters a ghostly vessel. On board are Death (a skeleton) and the "Night-mare Life-in-Death" (a deathly-pale woman), who are playing dice for the souls of the crew. With a roll of the dice, Death wins the lives of the crew and Life-in-Death wins the life of the Mariner. One by one, all of the crew members die, but the Mariner is left to endure a fate worse than death as punishment for his killing of the bird. Only the Mariner lives on, seeing for seven days and nights the curse in the eyes of the crew's corpses, whose last expressions remain upon their faces. Eventually, the Mariner's curse is temporarily lifted when he sees sea creatures swimming in the water. Despite his cursing them as "slimy things" earlier in the poem, he suddenly sees their true beauty and blesses them, and just at that moment as he manages to pray, the albatross falls from his neck. The bodies of the crew, possessed by good spirits, rise again and steer the ship back home, where it sinks in a whirlpool, leaving only the Mariner behind. A hermit on the mainland sees the coming ship and comes to help with a pilot and the pilot's boy in a boat. When they pull him from the water, they think he is dead, but when he opens his mouth, the pilot has a fit. The hermit prays, and the Mariner picks up the oars to row. The pilot's boy goes crazy and laughs, thinking the Mariner is the devil, and says, "The Devil knows how to row." As punishment for shooting the albatross, the Mariner, driven by guilt, is forced to wander the earth, tell his story, and teach a lesson to those he meets:He prayeth best, who loveth bestAll things both great and small;For the dear God who loveth us,He made and loveth all.After relating the story, the Mariner leaves, and the Wedding Guest returns home, and wakes the next morning "a sadder and a wiser man".3. English Eco-literature in Modern PeriodAt the beginning of the third millennium, the state of nature is in great danger. The present and impending catastrophes are all too familiar. Carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels is trapping the heat of the sun, causing the planet to become warmer. Glaciers and permafrost are melting, sea levels rising, rainfall patterns changing, winds growing stronger. Meanwhile, the oceans are overfished, deserts are spreading, forests shrinking, fresh water becoming scarcer. The diversity of species upon the planet is diminishing.We live in a world of toxic waste,