On "Place" In Gary Snyder’s Literary Works And Environmentalist Practice

As one of the leading poets and environmentalists in contemporary America, Gary Snyder (1930-) has so far published more than thirteen volumes of poems, seven collections of articles and several volumes of poems in translated versions. Ever since his first poetry collection came out in1959, he has won growing popularity and academic attention both domestically and abroad, making unique contribution to cultivating and spreading ecological culture throughout the world.A survey of Snyder’s scholarship shows a common tendency which focuses on Snyder’s devotion to the exploration of man-nature relationship. However, few critics have paid due attention to Snyder’s ecological ideas centered around the concept of "place", and few critics have found the evolution of Snyder’s thinking on "place", which develops from "sense of place" to "a culture of place". Snyder made his ecological exploration from human beings’life "in place" by studying how they live in place, their relation with the place, the proper ways to make a living "in place". Snyder’s exploration does not restrict itself in metaphysical thinking or pursuit for grand meaning, but links intimately with human beings’actual life "in place".This dissertation aims at exploring Gary Snyder’s ecological thinking in terms of his concept on the relation between humanity and the rest of nature with a focus on "place" so as to distinguish Snyder’s ecological thinking from other ecological critics and writers."Place" is not only the starting point for Snyder’s quest for a balanced relationship with nature, but also for a harmonious relationship between culture and nature, the culmination of an idealist existential state-coming back to his dwelling place:nature from all levels of meanings, which integrates psychological, philosophical, aesthetical connotations and practical value.In the development of civilization,"place" is created with different meanings and values related to human beings’existence in different historical, cultural and theoretical contexts. Since the1970’s, academic circles began to pay more attention to the theoretical and practical significance related to "place". The term "sense of place" became a keyword which has been employed to examine the relation between human beings and the place. People from different fields and cultural backgrounds have various and open discussions on this issue. An interdisciplinary perspective testifies and discovers the potential meaning of "place".For Snyder, the concept of place has profound and extensive implications. Denotatively, it refers to the universe and to habitation of all beings from locality for everything in the world. Connotatively, the concept of place has enriched meanings and values which are closely linked with human beings’ existence. Gary Snyder’s sense of place is conducted with absorptions of the wisdoms generated by both the American Indian culture and the Chinese culture. Furthermore, Snyder holds that mainstream culture to some extent causes a loss of the harmonious relation between humanity and the rest of nature, therefore, he devotes himself to cultural critique, cultural reformation and reconstruction.This dissertation attempts to give a comprehensive study of Snyder’s ecological system based on his dramatization of "sense of place". The issues in question are mainly the following:how "sense of place" is represented and rebuilt in native mythological background; how this sense is created under the influence of the Chinese culture; how it is constructed in planetary consciousness and how it is further developed into the culture of place. The last question is the quest for and formation of an idealistic existential state with philosophical, psychological and aesthetical values.Chapter One discusses Snyder’s construction of sense of place in myth-making from the perspective of myth-archetype criticism. Myth-making has two functions for Snyder, one is to revive the sense of place of Native American Indians, the other is to call for a change in mainstream culture. The loss of the sense of place symbolized by the image of "logging" encourages Snyder to make myth so as to have a revival of the sense of place. Therefore Snyder hopes to rebuild the mythological community symbolized by the image of "hunting". In this way, Snyder believes that the sense of place continues through generations as represented by the image of "burning". Snyder’s myth-making marks his gravitation toward the Native American Indian culture in his search for an alternative to mainstream culture. He acts as a "coyote-like" mythological hero in order to build a happy land of place symbolized by "Turtle Island". In addition, myth-making is a long-life pursuit, for it can bring the revival of primitive unity of humanity and the rest of nature so as to build a perfect home for human beings from psychological need.Chapter Two focuses on Snyder’s construction of the sense of place under the influence of the Chinese culture in a cross-cultural context by applying Western existentialist phenomenology and humanist geography as theoretical bases. Snyder’s gravitation toward the Chinese culture not only marks his dissatisfaction with mainstream Western culture but also manifests his urgent need for spiritual enlightenment and a change of poetry writing in style and aesthetic representation. More importantly, the Chinese culture enriches his thinking of place. Through the combination of Taoism and Buddhism, Snyder creatively explores the following questions:how humanity and every other thing of the rest of nature live in their proper places and realize their subjectivity of existence; how they are related in place; how they make their most authentic living in place. Snyder’s answers to these questions help him form his Chinese way of place-making, that is, everything including humanity and the rest of nature is in place, everything is mutually connected in place and everything lives in place in the state of "wild". Besides, Snyder has an evolution of Western traditional notion about the wilderness by regarding the wilderness as the place. At the same time, by immersing himself in the cultivation of Buddhist and Taoist enlightening and related aesthetic representation, Snyder constructs the sense of place in possible ways of achieving a poetic dwelling.Snyder believes that "to know what we are we must know where we are". In other words, place holds intrinsic relations with the existence of an individual. Chapter three discusses Snyder’s "sense of place" as embodied in his planetary consciousness as well as his construction of "the culture of place". Facing increasing environmental crisis, people have a growing sense of placelessness and spiritual predicaments. Snyder proposes the sense of planet which holds that the earth planet is the home for humanity and the rest of nature. Snyder urges human beings to identify themselves as the natives of the earth planet so as to cultivate people’s consciousness of environment protection all over the world. However, only individual consciousness of environment protection is not enough to solve the global environment crisis. Snyder commits himself to a reinhabitary culture-in-the-making. Experiencing the process of multicultural construction of the sense of place, Snyder develops his process of place-making into the phase of the construction of a new cultural paradigm,"culture of place", which aims to make a proper and practical way of living through which people can to a great extent solve the growing conflicts between the economic development and environment protection, the global sense and local sense, nature and culture. The "culture of place" is actually a way of life in place to be easily practised. In addition, it can help realize the construction of the ecological community which is the core of the ecological culture and civilization. Snyder does not limit his quest for a balanced relation between humanity and the rest of nature at the level of myth-making, philosophical thinking and aesthetic representation; he practises this practical and ecological way of life in "Kitkitdizze" in which people can actually have the practice of re-inhabitation in place.To sum up,"place" in Snyder’s literary works and environmentalist practice expresses his exploration of the relation between humanity and the rest of nature, between culture and nature. His construction of sense of place and a culture of place accompanies his process of culture critique and culture reconstruction which shows his courage for a new and ecological way of life for humanity. Meanwhile, Snyder’s idea on "place" shows his love for the "earth-home" and his care for the destiny of humanity. Compared with other ecologists and ecologic writers, Snyder’s sense of "home" focused on "place" is formed on a multicultural background and from multi-layered perspectives. Snyder’s interpretation of the place can be regarded as a leading voice in contemporary ecological academia in two directions:one is the development from literature criticism to culture criticism; the other is the development of nature’s connotative meaning. Snyder plays the poet’s role in a courageous and practicable way in solving human beings’ existential dilemma when facing nature and culture.