A Study Of Eco-feminism In Ruth Ozeki's Works

From women and nature to man and nature,eco-feminism has been studying the literary works narrated around these relationships,and has gradually developed into the field of cross-cultural context.As more and more attention has been paid to the cross-cultural context in eco-feminism,the works of the famous Japanese-American writer Ruth Ozeki(1956-)have attracted more and more scholars.From her second novel All Over Creation(2003)to her third novel A Tale for the Time Being(2013),Ozeki focuses on the relationship between man and nature in the mainstream discourse of the current society,and tried to explore a unique eco-feminist way out of the relevant dilemmas with the help of Japanese Zen culture.This thesis chooses Ozeki's two works All Over Creation and A Tale for the Time Being as the research object.Tracking Ozeki's process of creative writing from "questioning" to "answering",with the insight from the theory of eco-feminist criticism,this paper analyzes Ozeki's criticism of patriarchal society and the construction of the relationship between women and nature and between man and nature.In addition,this paper explores the formation process of Ozeki's Japanese Zen eco-feminist view in the cross-cultural context,and studies the influence and significance of this cross-cultural eco-feminist ethics.The thesis is divided into six chapters.First of all,this paper uses Legler's emancipatory strategies to make a textual analysis of the separation of the relationship between man and all things in the patriarchal society described in Ozeki's works.It is found that Ozeki's "query" of the world is that she thinks that the "transformation" of nature by "science and technology" is actually a kind of destruction.This artificial "transformation" is a "violent tool" to alienate human beings and kill women,which breaks the multiple connections between people / people,women / nature,and people / nature.In her works,Ozeki strongly criticizes the terrible influence of this dualistic discourse system on human beings and the ecological environment.Secondly,starting from this "query",this paper finds that Ozeki,who has the identity of a meditator and the dual cultural background of Japan and the United States,tries to answer herself in her unique cultural context.Thirdly,based on Gaard's cross-cultural eco-feminist ethics,this paper probes into Ozeki's cultural ethics of "the unification of all things" in Japanese Zen thought as the ethical narrative of her works.It reconstructs the multiple connections broken in the dominant discourse of "science and technology".It reconstructs the multiple connections broken in the dominant discourse of "science and technology".Under the influence of Japanese Zen thought,Ozeki's works re-take "Dharma" as the ideological core and unify all things in the world into a whole,showing the uniqueness of her eco-feminist view.Finally,in order to further explore the formation and influence of Ozeki's ecological feminist view,this paper makes a detailed analysis and exposition of the Japanese Zen thought expressed in Ozeki's works and finally comes to the conclusion that Ozeki's Zen-style eco-feminism view is sublimated from the ecological mind to the Zen mind of "everything is me".This Zen mind contains a rethinking of the current western eco-feminism,and creatively puts forward some useful viewpoints,such as returning to itself,introspection and not imposing the transformation of external things,which can enrich and promote the development of eco-feminism.In addition,this paper also finds that the Zen methodology of "physical and mental detachment" put forward by Ozeki in her works provides an ecological ideological guidance of self-understanding,self-transcendence and integration with nature.It is of great significance to avoid over-radicalization and be more acceptable to the future development of eco-feminism.To sum up,this paper holds that the application of the above two kinds of eco-feminist criticism theories can not only analyze Ozeki's criticism and reconstruction of the current ecological dilemma faced by human beings,but also provide new thinking and way out for the current ecological crisis based on the cultural context of Japanese Zen thought.