Ecological Hardy

Thomas Hardy presents an extraordinary case of a master who has a long, prolific literary career. His writing career began in the 1860s and continued steadily into the twentieth century. He established his reputation with his creation of novel and graced it with his poetic achievement. Hardy is a writer for transitions and his insights about the future of human beings and society are profound. This project, enlightened by ecocriticism's study of Thomas Hardy and its turning attention to the concept"sense of place", will foreground the shaping role of"sense of place"in Hardy's thought and belief, and intend to unearth Thomas Hardy's ecological ideas, which, built upon"sense of place", are implanted in his thought and expressed in his novels.The thesis consists of five parts. Chapter One introduces ecocriticism and its study of Thomas Hardy, the concept"sense of place"and its relation to the science of ecology and the function of"sense of place"in Thomas Hardy. The concept"sense of place"is not invented by ecocriticism, however, it is ecocriticism that absorbs the concept and applies it to its critical practice. Meanwhile, like ecocriticism, the concept"sense of place", with its emphasis on the interrelatedness between man and his place, agrees with ecology. The most remarkable expression of Hardy's affection towards a place is his devotion to the construction of his fictional Wessex. Moreover, Hardy's intellectual independence and his belief exhibit the fundamental influence of"sense of place". The following chapters try to extract Hardy's eco-consciousness that is embedded in his thought. Chapter Two focuses on Thomas Hardy's adoption of human altruism, which signifies Hardy's ecological awareness that human beings should live interdependently upon one another so that they can enjoy a harmonious existence. Chapter Three discusses Hardy's bio-centric outlook and his realization of the same interdependence between men and their fellow-creatures. Since"[t]he subversive nature of Ecology rests on its assumption of literal interrelatedness, not just interdependence"(Neil Evernden, 1996:102), Chapter Four explores Hardy's perception of nature and culture and the relationship between them and discloses that Hardy approves of the integration of nature and culture but he is alert to the...