薇拉.凯瑟作品《啊拓荒者》中小人物的生态思想解读

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Abstract

As a famous ecological writer of United States in the 20th century, the

eco-consciousness in Willa Cather’s works have been widely researched and

analyzed. However, those studies mostly focus on the main characters in Cather’s

novels, while the minor characters are often ignored. As far as I am concerned, it is

worthwhile to explore the function of minor characters in her novels, for the

questions whether the minor characters have the same ecological awareness and

whether Cather’s eco-consciousness is reflected accordingly in protagonists and

minor characters are thought-provoking. In order to explore these questions, my

thesis shifts the focus to the minor character Ivar of Cather’s novel O, Pioneers!,

and, through the analysis of the inner thoughts under Ivar’s external behavior,

interprets Cather’s ecological ideology from eco-criticism perspective.

The paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter serves as an

introduction, summarizing the influence of Cather’s early life experience in

Nebraska on the enlightening of her ecological thinking, as well as advancing the

question of how the author expresses her ecological thoughts through the minor

character Ivar of O, Pioneers!. The second chapter surveys Cather studies at home

and abroad in five aspects: the version of regionalism, the view of romanticism, the

study of gender, the perspective of feminism, and the focus of racialism. The third

chapter explains the theory of eco-criticism, namely applying eco-ethics in the

interpretation of literary works. The forth chapter, studying the environment and

ecological elements in Cather’s prairie novels, briefly analyzes Cather’s eco-ethics,

that is, people coexist with nature in harmony and are equal with all creatures. The

fifth chapter is the core of the whole paper, explaining my argument that Ivar is the

real spokesman of Cather’s eco-ethics, and interpreting Ivar’s ecological thoughts in

detail, which are intensively embodied in his species egalitarianism and his attitude

to land. Moreover, through the comparison of Ivar and the protagonist Alexandra,

III

the thesis reveals that Alexandra reclaims wilderness for its economic interest while

Ivar’s love and awe of the land is without any material purpose. In addition, Ivar

holds species egalitarianism, caring and protecting a variety of animals, and

consciously maintains ecosystem in integrity, stability, and beauty, which

Alexandra does not. So Cather devotes her ideas of equality of species completely

to Ivar. Thus it could be said that the true representative of Willa Cather's

ecological thinking is Ivar rather than Alexandra. Therefore, only by interpreting

Ivar’s ecological thoughts, can we understand the true meaning of O, Pioneers!.

The paper finally concludes with the significance of Cather’s creation of the minor

character Ivar as well as the significance of Cather’s eco-ethics in guiding the

modern human society.

Key Words: Ecocriticism; minor character; species egalitarianism;

earth ethic; Willa Cather; O, Pioneers!

摘要

作为美国二十世纪著名西部生态主义作家，薇拉.凯瑟作品中的生态意识已经

广为研究和分析,但其中多以对主要人物的研究为重点，作品中的小人物往往被批

评家们忽略。那么她的作品中小人物是否也具有同等的生态意识？小说的生态主

义思想是否在大、小人物身上有一致的反映？小人物的作用又何在？为探究这些

问题，本论文将关注的焦点转移到凯瑟作品《啊，拓荒者》中的小人物艾佛身上，

从生态批评的角度出发，透过他表面的言行研究分析他深层的思想，从而解读凯

瑟的生态伦理观。

本论文分为六章，第一章为引言，介绍了薇拉.凯瑟早年在内布拉斯加的生

活经历对她的生态思想的启蒙与引导,并提出了笔者之所见并要探讨的问题，即小

说《啊，拓荒者》是如何通过小人物来表达作者的生态主义思想。第二章为文献

综述，从五个方面概述了国内外对凯瑟进行研究和解读：地域主义﹑浪漫主义﹑

性别研究﹑女性主义和种族主义；第三章为理论介绍，解释了用于分析本论文的

对文学所持的生态批评视角，即生态批评的定义﹑来源和发展。此外，这一章还

概括了国内外当前对凯瑟作品中生态思想研究的现状。第四章通过研究凯瑟草原

小说中的环境描写及其内含的生态主义因素，简要地分析凯瑟作品中的生态主义

思想，即人与自然和谐共处，人类与天地万物一样是自然的一部分。第五章是全

文的核心，详细地分析了艾弗的生态思想，阐释了为什么艾佛才是凯瑟生态思想

的真正代言人。本文认为，艾弗的生态意识集中表现在两个方面，一是他的物种

平等主义思想，二是他对土地的尊重与热爱。论文通过对艾佛与主人公亚历山德

拉进行比较分析，揭示了亚历山德拉开垦荒野是出于经济利益的立场，然而艾佛

对土地的热爱和敬畏则是不带任何物质企图不索取任何回报的。此外，艾佛怀有

物种平等主义的思想，关爱并保护各种动物，自觉维持着生态系统的完整、稳定

和美丽。因而笔者认为真正代表薇拉. 凯瑟的生态思想的发言人是艾佛这个小人

物而不是主人公亚历山德拉。因此，只有通过研究解读艾弗的思想，才能了解小

说的真正含义。论文的结尾部分，强调了凯瑟创作艾佛这个小人物的意义以及凯

瑟生态伦理观对现代人类社会的引导意义。

关键词：生态批评; 小人物; 物种平等主义; 土地伦理观；薇拉.凯瑟；

《啊，拓荒者》

Chapter One Introduction

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Cather’s Life with Fruitful Accomplishments

The first half of 20th century saw a great woman novelist – Willa Cather, who was

praised as “a defender of the spiritual graces in the midst of an increasingly materialistic

culture.”(Schroeter 200) and who had few rivals not only among her contemporaries but

also in the modern literary world. As a remarkable peer of Hemmingway and Scott

Fitzgerald, she shared the same reputation as they did, but unlike them, she excelled at

novels rather than short stories, and was famous for her depiction of the prairie

landscape and eulogizing pioneering spirits. Cather is a productive writer. Throughout

her life, she wrote 16 novels and more than 60 short stories, poems and essays. As early

as 1930, when Sinclair Lewis, the first American Nobel Prize winner in Literature,

delivered his speech in the awards ceremony in Stockholm Sweden, he expressed his

warm esteem of Cather’s creative achievements in literature. He announced that Willa

Cather deserved the Nobel Prize too. Indeed, no matter whether it is from literary or

aesthetic point of view, or from the in-depth understanding of the United States in this

special pioneering period of history, Cather’s literary creation regarding the influence

and impact of physical world to pioneers’ spiritual realm are worthy of our careful study

and exploration.

1.2 Nebraska, the Source of Cather’s Ecological Thinking

Most of Willa Cather’s novels are set against the background of wild and

unconstrained prairie, by which readers are always led into a charming enriched flavor

of western frontier, and impressed by a beautiful and harmonious ecological

environment. In order to better understand the ecological thinking of Cather’s works, we

have to go back to her growing experiences which had close relationship with Nebraska

the prototype of her story settings.

Willa Cather (1873 – 1974) was born in Back Creek, Virginia. Her childhood was

spent there till 1883. Later when she was nine years old, the whole family moved to

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摘要：

IIAbstractAsafamousecologicalwriterofUnitedStatesinthe20thcentury,theeco-consciousnessinWillaCather’sworkshavebeenwidelyresearchedandanalyzed.However,thosestudiesmostlyfocusonthemaincharactersinCather’snovels,whiletheminorcharactersareoftenignored.AsfarasIamconcerned,itisworthwhiletoexplorethefuncti...

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