Eco-feminism In Hemingway’s War Fiction

Hemingway is a legend in American literature, and many of his classic works arerelated with wars. And it is these war fictions that made him a world-class master inliterature. As the winner of Nobel Prize of literature in1954, Hemingway not onlyproposed Iceberg Theory, a unique writing style of his own, but also created classical"Code Hero". In the last few decades, Hemingway and his war fiction have beenstudied by domestic and overseas scholars from many critical perspectives. With thedevelopment of the global environmental movement and the feminist movement,Eco-feminism emerged, and it leads Hemingway and his works to new readings.Eco-feminism, first proposed by a French feminist named Francois d’Eaubonne,was considered as a hybrid theory by many critics. It is a combination of ecologismand feminism. Eco-feminism is a new literary theory which provides critics with twodimensions. It can provide a wider vision for the literary critics. However, fewerresearches have been made to study Hemingway’s war fiction from Eco-feminist pointof view.Therefore, the thesis aims to explore the Eco-feminist elements in Hemingway’swar fiction through a detailed textual analysis. The paper consists of five parts. Thefirst part is a brief introduction of Hemingway’s war fiction, its literature review, andEco-feminist theory. Chapter One centers on awakening of Hemingway’sEco-feminism through the analysis of his social background, his family and friends.Industrialization and war greatly changed both the nature and the status of female. Inface of all these changes, Hemingway expressed his sympathy for the spoiled natureand woman. He condemned people’s over-exploration, and his Eco-feministconsciousness began to form. Chapter Two dwells on the study of Hemingway’secological consciousness by analyzing his war fiction. His concerns for the sufferingof nature and his descriptions of the ideal relationship between nature and human areembodied in many of his war stories. Chapter Three is intended to probeHemingway’s Feminist sensibility by studying the important female characters in Hemingway’s three war novels, namely, Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises, CatherineBarkley in A Farewell to Arms, and Pilar and Maria in For Whom the Bell Tolls.Finally comes the conclusion that Hemingway is a writer with Eco-feminismconsciousness. The thesis aims to provide advice for the further study of Hemingwayand his works. As the ideal of Eco-feminists is to build a harmonious society, thispaper intends to draw more attention to environment protection and woman’s issues.