An Ecofeminist Literary Criticism Interpretation On Refuge:an Unnatural History Of Family And Place

Terry Tempest Williams’s best known book Refuge:An Unnatural History of Family and Place was initially published in1991. This book is a masterpiece in the field of ecofeminist literary criticism, when published, causing an extensive discussion in American academia especially in the field of nature writing and ecofeminist literature.Refuge:An Unnatural History of Family and Place is a memoir of Terry Tempest Williams, recording the miserable suffering process of her families and the flood of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge caused by the rising level of Great Salt Lake, where Williams born and lived for years. Williams defines her family as a Clan of One-Breasted Women which is influenced by atomic test in the Nevada Desert.The thesis mainly makes an ecofeminist literary criticism interpretation on the relationship between nature and woman in Refuge. It researches on the aspects of similarities, intimacy, alliance, oppression and resistance of nature and women from the point of ecofeminist literary criticism. Williams holds that nature and women are the same in nature, and she sees nature as women and hopes women are integrated into nature. Through the interpretation on the Williams’s ecofeminist consciousness in the context, presenting William’s appeal of criticizing the oppression on nature and women in patriarchal society and making resistance to fight for the equal status and peaceful life of nature and women.