Abstract

As the pioneer of eco-literature, Thoreau wrote Walden which is considered as pure nature writing. Walden records Thoreau’s life and thoughts at Walden Pond. This dissertation intends to give an eco-critical study of Walden on the aspects of conception and practice through reading the text, indexing documents and analyzing from the perspective of eco-criticism, probing the profound ecological implications reflected in this work and its influence on modern humans.

KEYWORDS:deep ecology; ecological ethics; Walden; conception; practice

摘　要

作为生态文学的开创者，梭罗创作了《瓦尔登湖》一书，该书是梭罗对他在瓦尔登湖畔的生活和思想的记录，被认为是一本纯粹的自然读本。本选题试着以生态批评中两大重要观点——深层生态学、生态伦理学为依据，综合运用文献检索、对比分析等一系列研究方法，通过对《瓦尔登湖》的生态思想和实践的解读,评论《瓦尔登湖》对生态文学的贡献，并提炼出符合生态思想且适合现代社会的生活方式和理念。

关键词:深层生态学； 生态伦理学；《瓦尔登湖》；观念层面；实践

1.    Introduction
Entering industrial times, human beings are creating more and more wealth and making far greater progress in material production than ever before, but also suffering the most serious pollution and natural disasters, what’s worse, more and more people are trapped in a spiritual waste land. It is under such social background that ecological movement arises, and then quickly grows into an influential force and Thoreau’s Walden and his views on nature become influential in modern times.
1.1 Introduction to Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is considered as the greatest nature writer in American literature. But at his time he was generally regarded only as a disciple of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Actually, Thoreau did a lot of jobs, including school-teaching, surveying, and pencil-making. What he favored was to communicate with nature. Half a century after his death, his ideas began to be discovered, and people realized that he was a transcendentalist, a nature writer, an exponent of simple life, and a philosophical anarchist.