An ECO-Critical Study Of Growth Of The Soil

Knut Hamsun (1859—1952) is a famous novelist in Norway, one of the prestigious novelists in the 20th Century. With a reputation of natural writing and a concern about the relationship between Nature and human beings, Hamsun’s fictions are related to the aspects of modern culture. His best well known novel, Growth of the Soil, was regarded as an epoch-making masterpiece. This novel deeply reflects the attitude and living ways of human being to nature. It, also, reveals the author’s thinking to the relationship between Nature and human beings, and his strong concern for human’s fate. This Thesis is dedicated to revealing the relationship between nature and human from the perspective of Eco-criticism in Growth of the Soil.This article is composed of three parts. Introduction part covers eco-criticism theory and its recent research, and a brief introduction to this novel; and, also, it covers the recent research of Growth of the Soil at home and abroad, and the significance of studying this topic.The body part includes three chapters. Chapter One probes the harmonious ecological spirits in Growth of the Soil by analyzing the "season writing" and the image of the major character, Isak. The Season represents the universal law of Nature. Isak represents the son of Nature who sticks to land. It’s the only way to harvest natural gifts towards respecting the law of nature and hard-working in a simple way of life. Chapter Two studies the characters:Eleseus and Barbro. They are the second generations of the wild land, who ignore soil and simple life but try to adapt themselves to the city environment. As a result, their final end is extremely pitiful. Through portraying the two characters, Hamsun aimed at criticizing the sense of anti-ecology which is reflected by Eleseus and Barbro. Chapter Three mainly analyzes the happy ending of human’s returning back to Nature through identifying the biblical archetype and analyzing the Psychological activities.The conclusion part summarizes the main ecological thoughts. We, humans, can not go back to the original life, but Hamsun’s ecological thoughts such as "Going back to the Nature and Respecting the Nature" are never out of date even until today and are still worth thinking deeply and commenting.