从生态批评视角解读《白鲸》-人与自然的矛盾与统一_英语论文

An Analysis of Moby Dick from the Perspective of Eco-criticism--- Contradiction and Unity between Man and Nature

摘要

19世纪50年代，美国著名作家赫尔曼·梅尔维尔创作了非常具有代表性的生态文学著作《白鲸》，这部小说也被赞誉为莎士比亚式悲剧。在这部小说中，梅尔维尔既描绘了大自然的美丽和神秘，也指出了在人类文明和工业革命进程中人类对大自然的暴行，梅尔维尔试图通过这部小说警告人类如果继续破坏自然，最终将会像捕鲸船“皮阔德”一样受到惩罚。这部小说反映出梅尔维尔对人类命运以及人类与自然关系的思考非常具有前瞻性。近些年来，人类社会的发展面临着前所未有的生态危机，人类必须重视人与自然的和谐发展从而遏制眼前的生态危机,因此从生态批评视角对《白鲸》的研究具有重大的现实意义。本文将从生态批评视角来探究《白鲸》这部小说所蕴含的生态启示，通过对比船长亚哈和以实玛利对待自然不同的态度和结局，告诫当今世人：人类应该尊重自然，热爱自然，从可持续发展的角度处理好人类活动与生态平衡的关系。 

关键词: 生态批评；生态启示；船长亚哈；以实玛利

Abstract

Moby Dick is American famous writer Herman Melville’s masterpiece, written in the 1950s. It is a representative work in the ecological literature and has been hailed as “a Shakespearean tragedy of man against fates”. In this novel, Melville describes the beauty and mystery of nature. Meanwhile, he points out human’s atrocity over nature in the process of human civilization and industrialization. Melville intends to warn that if human beings continue to make damage to nature, they would be punished eventually like the ship “Pequod”. This novel reflects Melville’s foresight about the fate of human beings and the relationship between mankind and nature. 

In recent years, the development of human society has witnessed an unprecedented ecological crisis. It’s necessary for human beings to attach more importance to the harmonious development between man and nature so as to prevent the environmental crisis from getting worse. Therefore, the analysis of Moby Dick from the perspective of eco-criticism has great practical significance. This thesis tries to probe into the ecological revelation embodied in Moby Dick through making a comparative analysis of different attitudes towards nature and different endings of Ishmael and Captain Ahab from the perspective of eco-criticism, in the hope of warning mankind to treat nature with due respect and love and deal with the relationship between human activities and ecosystem in a sustainable way.

Key words: eco-criticism; ecological revelation; Captain Ahab; Ishmael

Contents

Acknowledgments i

Abstract(Chinese) ii

Abstract(English) iii

Contents iv

Introduction 1

Chapter One Eco-criticism 5

1.1 The Development of Eco-criticism 5

1.2 Practical significance of the Study 6

Chapter Two Contradiction between Man and Nature 7

2.1 The Whaling Industry in the 19th Century 7

2.2 Man’s Relentless Slaughtering of the Whales 8

Chapter Three Different Attitudes of Ahab and Ishmael 9

3.1 Ahab’s Hostility to Nature 9

3.1.1 Ahab’s Anthropocentrism 9

3.1.2The Revenge of Captain Ahab 9

3.2 Ishmael’s Attitude towards Nature 10

Conclusion 12

Bibliograthy 13