（英语语言文学专业论文）在自然中寻求自我认同《船讯》的生态主义解读.pdf

v 摘 要 本文作者试图从生态批评的角度对船讯这部作品进行分析来探寻人类与自然的 关系。1935 年出生于康涅狄格州的安妮 普鲁是美国当代最著名的文学作家之一。她的 第一部长篇小说明信片发表之后，就获得了 1993 年的福克纳奖，安妮 普鲁自此步 入了小说家的行列。 她的第二部也是最受欢迎的小说 船讯 为她赢得更多的奖项： 1993 年的国家图书奖和 1994 年的普利策奖等。迄今为止，她已经发表了四部长篇小说和多 篇短篇小说分别收录在两部短篇故事集中。近年来，她的作品引起了来自国内外的批评 家和文学研究者的广泛关注。 生态批评是在环境危机日益严重的基础上出现和发展起来的。 1978 年， 鲁克尔特在 他的一篇题为文学与生态学的文章中首次使用了“生态批评”的概念。随着越来越 多的文学研究者认识到环境危机的重要性以及他们所肩负的生态责任， 生态文学的研究 也得到了广泛发展。生态批评顿时成为文学批评领域的一支重要力量。生态批评家提倡 将文学与生态学结合起来并强调文学批评家应具有生态视野。 在这个工业和科技迅猛发 展的时代，人们对待自然的态度以及人与自然之间的关系值得我们进一步地探讨。 她的作品主要关注的是西方乡村地区的经济和历史变化。 她可以称之为地理决定论 者，她相信地方的自然环境、气候和地貌地形决定着当地的文化传统以及生活和生产方 式。她说道： “我特别留心关注新英格兰山区乳牛场的消失，大西洋加拿大渔业的瓦解， 以及在美国西部地区逐渐消亡的养牛的大牧场”(proulx, 2005: 129)。船讯就是以加 拿大的纽芬兰岛为背景，截止到她完成这部小说，她曾经先后九次走访纽芬兰岛深入了 解当地人的历史、文化、传说和语言。据她所说，这座小岛是一个具有深层次个人意义 的地方。事实上，“地方”(place)在她的笔下具有某种治疗能力。主人公奎尔和他的家 人离开了他们生活的城市搬往他们祖先生活过的海岛。随着生活环境的变化，奎尔在这 一新的社区内找到了自我价值并获得周围人的认同。实际上，从城市到乡村海岛的旅程 就是奎尔意识的一次飞跃，在这里，作者普鲁所强调的正是人与自然和谐关系的可能性 和必要性，这与生态批评的主张是一致的。这篇论文整体上可以分为六个部分： 第一章作者大体介绍了安妮 普鲁的生平及作品、小说船讯的内容以及文献综 述。 vi 第二章主要回顾生态批评的发展、定义及其理论基础。 第三章是对小说主人公奎尔在家庭中以及整个社区环境中失去自我的分析。 在人类 中心主义主导的社会环境中，人与自然的疏离导致了人类物质欲望的膨胀，造成了人们 之间的异化。奎尔一个彻头彻尾的失败者，不仅遭到家人的离弃，而且受到社区成 员的疏远。然而，他不知道他所遭受的痛苦正是人们对自然的漠然态度造成的。 第四章本文作者根据利奥普德的大地伦理学分析了奎尔在与自然的互动过程中寻 找自我的可能性。在姑妈的劝说下，奎尔和他的家庭搬往远离现代文明却接近自然的纽 芬兰岛，渐渐地，他克服了对水、船和大海的恐惧，认识到人与自然的平等关系并且勇 于承担起保护周围自然的责任。在他与自然互动的过程中，他的自信和自我认同感也慢 慢培养起来。 第五章主要讨论的是通过回归自然，奎尔最终在新的家庭和社区范围内找到了自 我。随着时间的流逝，奎尔深深爱上了这个气候恶劣的小岛，这里的居民、他的工作、 以及使他感到恐惧过的大海，他已然与大自然融为一体，并且与家人和其他人都建立了 和谐的关系。这正好与生态批评家所提出的深层生态学理论相吻合。 第六章是文章的结论部分。 本文作者通过分析总结只有在人类社会发展工业化和商 业化过程中， 人类能够完全获得解决环境污染和资源耗尽问题的能力并最终建立人与自 然的和谐关系时，那才是真正意义上文明和进步。 关键词：自我认同，自然，生态主义，船讯 i abstract in this paper the present writer intends to explore the relationship between nature and human beings through analyzing the shipping news from the perspective of ecocriticism. annie proulx, born in connecticut, is a notable contemporary american literary writer. she achieves her reputation as a fiction writer at the age of fifty-eight with the publication of her first novel postcards (1992) which earns her the pen/faulkner award in 1993. the shipping news, as her second and most widely accepted and acclaimed novel, brings her more honors: national book award for fiction in 1993 and the pulitzer prize for fiction in 1994. so far, she has published two collections of short stories, four novels, etc., arousing wide attentions from critics and researchers both at home and abroad. the appearance and development of ecocriticism are greatly owing to more and more serious environmental crisis around the world. the concept of “ecocriticism” was first proposed by william rueckert in the article named “literature and ecology” in 1978. as an increasing number of literary researchers realize the importance of ecological problems and their own ecological responsibilities, the study on ecological literature becomes much broader. ecocriticism turns to be one of the main forces in the field of literary criticism. ecocritics call for the combination of literature and ecology and emphasize that literary critics should have ecological vision. in an era that technology and industry develop so rapidly, human attitude toward nature and the relationship between them deserve further discussing. proulx is something of geography determinist, believing that regional landscapes, climate and topography dictate local cultural traditions and kinds of work. her works mainly focus on the historical and economic changes of rural areas in the west. she says that “i have been interested in the disappearance of dairy farms in new england, the collapsing fishing ii industry in atlantic canada and the slow fade of cattle ranching in the west”. (proulx, 2005: 129) the shipping news is just set in newfoundland of atlantic canada. by the time she finished the novel, she had made nine trips to this island and devoted herself to learning the inhabitants history, culture, lore and language. just as she once said the island is a place of “deepest personal significance”. as a matter of fact, in her writings place has a curative power. quoyle and his new family left the city for a rural island where generates their ancestors. through the change of living environment, quoyle gradually learns to value himself and finds his identity in the community. therefore, quoyles travel from city to the rural island is actually a journey from one ideology to another. proulx emphasizes the necessity and possibility of the harmonious relationship between human beings and nature, which is exactly in accordance with the purpose of ecocriticism. this thesis is divided into six chapters: in chapter one, the author makes a general introduction of annie proulx, content of the shipping news, and literature review of the novel. chapter two is the presentation of the development, definitions and theoretical basis of ecocriticism. chapter three is an analysis of quoyles loss of identity both in family and community. under the social circumstance dominated by anthropocentrism, the expansion of material desires causes the alienation between human beings and nature, as well as among individuals. quoyle, who is considered to be a total loser, is alienated by his family and community. however, he does not realize his sufferings are rooted in peoples indifference to nature. chapter four presents the possibility that quoyle pursues self-identity during the course of interaction with nature with the help of leopolds land ethic. persuaded by his aunt, quoyle and his family move to newfoundland, which is an island far from modern civilization but closer to nature. quoyle gradually overcomes the fear of water, boat and the sea. he not only realizes an equal relationship between man and nature, but also takes the iii responsibility of protecting the environment around them bravely. his sense of self-confidence and self-identity grows in the process of his interaction with nature. chapter five mainly discusses that quoyle is able to find his identity within both family and community through returning to nature. as time goes by, impacted by people around him, quoyle has fallen in love with the place with an uncertain climate, the sea, the inhabitants and his job. he feels a sense of integration with the nature and harmonization with family members and other individuals. this is just in accordance with the theory of deep ecology advocated by ecocritics. in the last part the author draws the conclusion that true civilization and progress lie in the harmonious relationship between man and nature. therefore, nowadays, if human beings want to truly return to the harmonious relationship with nature, they have to completely acquire the ability of solving the severe environmental pollution and resource exhaustion generated in the process of industrialization and commercialization. key words: nature, self-identity, ecocriticism, the shipping news 关于学位论文独创声明和学术诚信承诺 本人向河南大学提出硕士学位申请。本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文是本人在导 师的指导下独立完成的， 对所研究的课题有新的见解。 据我所知， 除文中特别加以说明、 标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包括其他人已经发表或撰写过的研究成果，也不包括其 他人为获得任何教育、科研机构的学位或证书而使用过的材料。与我一同工作的同事对 本研究所做的任何贡献均已在论文中作了明确的说明并表示了谢意。 在此本人郑重承诺：所呈交的学位论文不存在舞弊作伪行为，文责自负。 学位申请人（学位论文作者）签名： 201 年 月 日 关于学位论文著作权使用授权书 本人经河南大学审核批准授予硕士学位。作为学位论文的作者，本人完全了解并同 意河南大学有关保留、使用学位论文的要求，即河南大学有权向国家图书馆、科研信息 机构、数据收集机构和本校图书馆等提供学位论文（纸质文本和电子文本）以供公众检 索、查阅。本人授权河南大学出于宣扬、展览学校学术发展和进行学术交流等目的，可 以采取影印、 缩印、 扫描和拷贝等复制手段保存、 汇编学位论文 （纸质文本和电子文本） 。 （涉及保密内容的学位论文在解密后适用本授权书） 学位获得者（学位论文作者）签名： 201 年 月 日 学位论文指导教师签名： 201 年 月 日 chapter one introduction 1 chapter one introduction as one of the most famous contemporary american fiction writers, annie proulx has attracted wide attention of critics and researchers from both abroad and home. the shipping news, published in 1993, is her second and most acceptable and acclaimed novel. the novel, which brings her four major awards: national book award for fiction in 1993, chicago tribune heartland prize for fiction in 1993 and irish times international fiction prize in 1993, as well as the pulitzer prize for fiction in 1994, becomes a best-seller soon. thus proulx and the novel win enthusiastic praise from both critics and writers. proulx is something of a geography determinist, believing that regional landscapes, climate and topography make much impact on local cultural traditions and kinds of work. her works mainly focus on the historical and economic changes of rural areas in the west. in the shipping news, she advocates that man should return to nature and establish a harmonious relationship with nature. in this paper the present writer intends to explore the necessity of building harmonious relationship between nature and human beings through analyzing the shipping news from the perspective of ecocriticism. to analyze the novel in detail, it is of great necessity to make a brief introduction about the author and the novel and have a brief literature review of the novel in the first place. 1.1 the author annie proulx is a writer of regionalist fiction for the reason that her fiction is characterized by “its fascination with rural country and hinterland existence”. (hunt, 2009: 1) her protagonists are invariably unimportant people who inhabit what one might be termed as self-identity pursuit in nature 2 the margin of society, rural backwaters or slums, for instance. her writing aims at showing the “harsh conditions, historical damage, and communities marred by abuse and madness” (hunt, 2009: 2) of the particular places. whats more, it is a critique of postmodern culture which turns everything into commodity. certainly annie proulxs creative inspiration is closely related to her life experience. annie proulx was born in norwich, connecticut, on 22th august 1935. her father george napoleon proulx, was a textile expert in a company of new england where his family immigrated in the 1860s. he eventually became a vice president of the company and traveled to south america and russia. because of her fathers job, the family moved frequently during her childhood, living in towns in vermont, north carolina, maine, and rhode island. gradually she developed an interest in focusing on the changes of rural communities vermont, newfoundland, texas and wyoming. her mothers family, the gills, immigrated from the west of england to new england in 1635. her mother was an artist and amateur naturalist whose family had “a strong tradition of oral storytelling,” teaching her “to see and appreciate the natural world, to develop an eye for detail, and to tell a story.”(rood, 2001: 2) annie proulx seems to have inherited her mothers painterly eye, naturalistic style and capacity of storytelling, so that her fiction pays great attention to the disappearance of dairy hill farms, the collapsing fishing industry and the slow fade of cattle ranching. apart from a writer of fiction, annie proulx is also a learner of history. she studied history at the university of vermont in1969, and then attended graduate school majoring in history at sir george williams university in montreal. after earning her masters degree in 1973, she continued the doctoral work in renaissance economic history and received a doctors degree in 1975. during her study in graduate school, she was deeply impacted by the french annales school, which opposed the narrow definition of history as a “record of the chapter one introduction 3 political and military activities of so-called great man,” (rood, 2001: 3) and advocated examining the lives of ordinary people and the evolution of everyday life through social, economic, and even geological changes. proulx declared that she is “keenly interested in situations of change, both personal and social” in the biographical statement of reading group guide: the shipping news. therefore, in a large measure, her academic training also has a great influence on the themes of her fiction. annie proulx had begun to write short stories before she entered the graduate school, and later these short stories were collected in her first book heart songs and other stories. in these early stories, the main concerns of her later fiction are already visible. she describes the life in rural poor of new england, introduces the ecological problems and emphasizes the value of understanding the past and preserving ones heritage. however, in order to bring up her children, annie proulx started to write nonfiction for magazines after her graduation. during that period she incessantly wrote short stories whenever she squeezed time. in 1988, her first book heart songs and other stories was published and well acclaimed by the critics and readers. she thereby was greatly inspired to write her first full-length novel postcards. this novel achieves a greater success and earns the 1993 pen/faulkner award for her. much more honors followed for her second novel, the shipping news (1993), which won a series of awards, such as a national book award for fiction in 1993, a chicago tribune heartland prize for fiction in 1993 and an irish times international fiction prize in 1993, as well as the pulitzer prize for fiction in 1994. in 2000, it was even been adapted for the screen by the famous american director lasse hallstrom. annie proulx thereby becomes a well-known novelist “compared to great american writers most notably ernest hemingway and william faulkner” (varbogli, 2002: 1). after that, she published two more novels: accordion crimes in 1996, that old ace in the hole in 2002 and another collection of short stories close range: wyoming stories in 1999. her best well-known short story brokeback mountain self-identity pursuit in nature 4 contained in close range: wyoming stories was selected for a 1998 o. henry short story award and at the same name it was adapted into a movie by the notable chinese director ang lee in 2005. the dominant theme of proulxs fiction is how ordinary people live their lives in face of social, economic, and in particular ecological changes. her first book, heart songs and other stories, focuses on the interactions between the rural poor and the city people who are gradually buying up their land; her first novel postcards mainly portrays the decline of the small family farm in new england at the beginning of accelerated urbanization during the second world war; in the shipping news, she continues to depict how the intervention of modernization and government policy gradually destroys the traditional way of life in newfoundland; her other later works go on with the same concerns as in her earlier fiction. thus it can be seen that the importance of geographic environment is apparent in her works. annie proulx is a geographic determinist for she believes that regional landscapes, climate and topography would have a great influence on local cultural traditions. richard eder, writing for the new york times book review (23 may 1999), praised proulx for her “feeling for place and the shape into which it twists her characters.” 1.2 the novel most part of the shipping news is set in newfoundland, to which proulx paid a visit in the mid-1980s for the first time. by the time she finished the novel, she had made nine trips to this island and devoted herself to learning their history, culture, lore and language. according to her words the island is a place of “deepest personal significance”. (rood, 2001: 60) she took an interest in the fishing families which followed a hard and traditional lifestyle in that harsh climate. on the other hand, as the rural new england she depicted in postcards and her earlier stories, once again she noticed “contemporary civilization rushing in on the island after chapter one introduction 5 its centuries of isolation.” (rood, 2001: 60) the protagonist quoyle, born in brooklyn, is an ugly and dull man who suffers cold shoulder and discrimination from his families and others since childhood. he never even once wins any approval from people around him and does not find his value of life in his thirties. working as a third-rate newspaperman, he pathetically endures his wifes infidelities to maintain an unequal marriage and brings up the two young daughters bunny and sunshine. suddenly this kind of calmness is completely broken until one day when his miserable life goes to extremes: he is dismissed from the newspaper, his wife petal is killed in a traffic accident when eloping with another man, the two daughters are sold to a pornographer by his wife for money, and his parents both commits suicide due to the conditions of poverty, etc. by the time he finds his daughters with the help of police, his aunt agnis comes along and suggests that they should leave the heart-struck place for her birthplace newfoundland which has generated their ancestors. it is the place where quoyle begins his new life. quoyle and his aunt find the old family house on quoyle point and get it repaired for living. with the help of a friend, quoyle finds a newspaper job in a town named killick-claw on newfoundland and takes charge of reporting the shipping news and car accident stories. for the first time in his life, he begins to have courage to state his views straightforwardly when reporting the shipping news and his reports turn to be popular in the local area. eventually quoyle becomes a passionate, confident and competent chief editor of the newspaper. on this island with heavy gales and salty smell, quoyle finally finds the pleasure of work and joys of his life. meanwhile, he meets a woman named wavey and finds a warm, painless love. in the novel the author not just tells the only story of quoyle, but through quoyles main experience explores the spiritual journey of many different ordinary people from america to newfoundland. partridge loves life and is