An Ecocritical Comparative Study Of Thomas Hardy And Shen Congwen

Thomas Hardy and Shen Congwen lived in different worlds and also different times, but some similarities do exist between their writings. In their portrayals of nature, Hardy and Shen Congwen’s natural views and social views are embodied, which we can analyze and interpret from the perspective of ecocriticism.By comparison, the writer finds that both of them come from the countryside, attach themselves to their own hometown and happen to coincide with each other in depicting two unique worlds——"Wessex" and "West Hunan". Both Hardy and Shen Congwen depict the natural scenery and simple folkway. With the deep love for nature, they want to see the harmonious existence state between man and nature. Witnessing the huge impact of industrial civilization on the unsophisticated agricultural society and finding their characters struggling between the old and new civilization, they call for returning to nature and human nature. The thesis also tries to analyze the similar and different parts in female characters with the aid of ecofeminism and finds that female characters in works of both writers suffer the oppression from male characters. Facing the patriarchal oppression, women under Shen’s pens tend to resign themselves to adversity while women in Hardy’s works tend to struggle for themselves.