A Comparative Study Of Environmental Concerns In The Songs Of Distant Earth And Death's End

As Lawrence Buell(1939-)considers,science fiction is the genre of environmental literature that really specializes in making world.In its development,science fiction involves the reflection on the conflict between the development of human civilization and nature,and it manifests its literary ecological peculiarity.And then in works by Arthur C.Clarke(1917-2008)the conflict ascribes to its climax.As the successor of Clarke,in his works Liu Cixin(1963-)as well to some extent inherits Clarke's ecological philosophy and has gradually developed his strong ecocentric thoughts with his own writing.This thesis attempts to analyze Liu Cixin's absorption of Clarke's ecological thoughts and refines the similarity between their works as well the variation in them.This thesis utilizes such core concepts as “place-attachment”,“reinhabitation”,“ecocentrism” and “weak anthropocentrism” in Lawrence Buell's theory of environmental criticism to conduct the comparison of the environmental concerns between Arthur C.Clarke's classical work The Songs of Distant Earth(1986)and Liu Cixin's representative work Death's End(2016).The whole thesis is composed of five parts.It extends the argument and analysis from three aspects in three chapters in addition to the introduction and the conclusion.The first part commences with a brief introduction to Arthur C.Clarke and Liu Cixin and their representative works The Songs of Distant Earth and Death's End and further introduces relevant overseas and domestic research and trends.And it as well interprets Lawrence Buell's concepts of “place-attachment,reinhabitation,ecocentrism and weak anthropocentrism” in his theory,which functions as the theoretical support of this thesis.Chapter One starts from the perspective of similarity with Buell's place-attachment concept to analyze the interdependence between human beings andplace and then to expose the consequence after losing the sense of place-attachment in The Songs of Distant Earth and Death's End.The depictions of the Earth,human's new colonial planet Thalassa and planet Sagan Two in The Songs of Distant Earth,and the Earth,the solar system and the universe in Death's End,all demonstrate the deep sense of place-attachment of Clarke and Liu Cixin.Chapter Two is to analyze the similarity of the evolving images of cities with“reinhabitation” concept in The Songs of Distant Earth and Death's End.It illustrates that two writers construct their idealistic ecological cities through the delineation of the images of cities and attempt to seek out a viable way to resolve the environmental problems in the development of urbanization.In the urbanization process,human beings and nature grow into binary opposition,while the reinhabitation in city is a dynamic process to obviate the conflict and to construct a new harmonious ecological urban form.Chapter Three states the variable comparison with the concept of “weak anthropocentrism” that pays respects for the subjectivity of human beings in The Songs of Distant Earth,and elucidates the ecocentric concerns that accentuate the holism of universe instead of the interests of human civilization in Death's End.In The Songs of Distant Earth,although he espouses ecocentrism,Clarke still tenaciously persists in his concerns on human's interests through the delineation of human beings on the Earth and Thalassan citizens,while Liu Cixin then depicts a holistic universe that cares about the welfare of each creature in Death's End.The last part is the conclusion.This thesis elaborates the similarity of the sense of place-attachment “from the Earth to universe”,the same evolving process of the images of cities,and the divergent environmental philosophy of Clarke who emphasizes on human's interests and that of Liu Cixin who stresses on the holistic welfare of all living creatures.Therefore,the two writers illustrate similar environmental concerns and convey their diverse ecological views in their works.Byexpressing environmental concerns in their science fiction,Clarke and Liu Cixin call on human's charismatic environmental consciousness and admonish that human beings must enliven their environmental imagination and set up a harmonious and commensal relationship with nature.With the analysis on the similar sense of place-attachment,the images of cities and the variable ecological philosophy,this thesis explores the environmental concerns of Clarke and Liu Cixin and manifests their intention and determination to awaken human's environmental consciousness and to find an imaginative way to resolve the contemporary environmental issues.