On Freya Matthews' Interpretive Rewriting Of "A White Heron"

Freya Mathews is a contemporary Australian environmental philosopher and female writer.With a strong sense of responsibility,she is concerned not only with the global ecological crisis,but also with the difficult situation of women and nature in the patriarchal society,and with individual spiritual crisis.Mathews' masterpiece,Ardea: A Philosophical Novella,is a creative adaptation of Sarah Orne Jewett's well-famed short story “A White Heron” published in the late 19 th century.“A White Heron” tells the story of a little girl named Sylvia who resists a young hunter's overpowering pecuniary-and-passionate lure and sticks to the protection of the white heron,a free creature of forest.Ardea: A Philosophical Novella also revolves around the white heron.Nevertheless,with more complex characters and relationships,this novel presents a white heron narrative in the new era.From the ecofeminist perspective,this thesis explores the ecological thoughts,female consciousness as well as the writers' reflection on the relationship between human beings and nature delineated in “A White Heron” and Ardea: A Philosophical Novella.The thesis makes a three-pronged analysis,namely “the white heron”,“the intruder” and “the protector”.The first part introduces the unique white heron narrative in Ardea: A Philosophical Novella based on “A White Heron” and Faust,and compares the symbolic meaning of the white heron in the two works.The second part dissects patriarchal capitalism's invasion of the natural environment epitomized by the forest,as well as the androcentric oppression over nature and women.The last part explains the evolution of ecofeminist view of nature and gender relations from various aspects,including the intimate connection between women and nature,the gradual awakening of female consciousness and the transformation of male roles;at the same time,it also reveals the prospect of the reconstruction of the harmonious relationship between men and nature,male and female.