| Richard Powers(1957-),a famous American novelist,is the typical representative of contemporary American "X-Generation".Since the first novel was published in 1985,he has written twelve novels up to now,all of which have gained good reputation in American literary world.The Echo Maker is his ninth novel,which won the American National Book Award in the year of publication.It is an information novel with rich contents,from neuroscience to cognitive science and ecology,which almost covers every field of contemporary natural science.In the novel,Powers presents a picture of the multiple integration of mind,body and spirit.He constructs a chaotic world caused by modern science and technology.According to chaos theory,people’s fate is uncertain and random,and even is controlled by uncontrollable forces from outside.The fictional characters,Mark,Karin and Weber,all experience the changes of their life systems due to conditions from the outside,while the development of their fates is based on the principle of "butterfly effect".As the center of the chaotic system,Mark encounters an accident and the double illusion syndrome makes his life a deterministic chaos.Influenced by Mark,both Karin and Weber are involved in the chaotic web,and their life system also experience the unpredictable chaos.Besides,the cosmos presented by Powers is full of chaos and unpredictability.Not only are wars,drugs and sexual disorder swarmed in the human world,but anthropocentrism makes the natural environment extremely chaotic,affecting the human living environment.The overuse of Platte River and the disappearance of sand-hill cranes year by year in the novel is just one of the evils of anthropocentrism and the best implication of the chaotic cosmos as well.The thesis is divided into five parts.The introduction part briefly talks about the author Richard Powers and his representative works,and the literature review of The Echo Maker at home and abroad is also presented for the necessity of the following research;meanwhile,the development of chaos theory in postmodern context is also mentioned,especially the successful application of chaos theory criticism in the study of Cormac McCarthy’s novels,which is helpful for the present thesis to take it as its theoretical support.Chapter one analyzes the uncertainty and chance of fictional characters’fates through the lens of chaos theory,i.e.,butterfly effect.Chapter two focuses on the chaos and disorder of the cosmos in The Echo Maker.On the one hand,it points out that the natural environments represented by sand-hill cranes are being destroyed by anthropocentrists;on the other hand,the subcultures represented by wars,drugs and sexual disorder are becoming the undercurrent of postmodern social and cultural surroundings.However,Powers is much concerned about ecological problems.The uncertain fate of his fictional characters and the chaos of the cosmos under his pen are the best manifestations of his love for nature.The in the third chapter,Powers helps us think out how to construct an organic whole,that is,the construction of biotic community.By this way,People may reach the "order"and balance,and it also can be seen as one of the best embodiment for Powers’s ecological thought.In the end,the thesis concludes that Powers’s novels are rich and complex in content,the application of both the chaos theory and eco-criticism to interpret The Echo Maker is not only helpful for readers to understand Powers’s chaotic and deep ecology consciousness,but also the best attempt to the literary criticism practice of chaos theory.It is also a kind of promotion for the study of Powers’s novels and the discussion and application of chaos in literary criticism. |
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