An Analysis of Walt Whitman’ s Song of Myself from the Perspective of Ecofeminism_英语论文

摘要

《自我之歌》是美国诗歌革命先驱沃尔特·惠特曼毕生力作《草叶集》（Leaves of Grass）中的精华篇，这首诗被认为是一首关于美国民主革命的史诗，其选题在同时代诗人中更为广泛大胆，诗人开创的自由诗诗体更是独树一帜，为此吸引了国内外众多学者就其诗歌及他的生平进行深入探究研读，其中主要集中在此作品中的民主思想、超验主义思想、自然观、泛性观、生态观等。笔者认为，惠特曼作为一位极具时代责任感的浪漫主义者，他视自然为地球之父，海洋为地球之母，并自诩是自然界中最普通无常的一片草叶，他以自己独有的方式歌颂地球之母，并借此表达他对自然与女性的尊敬。本文以生态女性主义理论为基础，深入探究诗中所体现的存在于女性、男性与自然之间的和谐关系，展现出惠特曼持有鲜明的生态女性主义观点，给予女性读者的力量，进而加强人们对女性与自然的认同，无论是人与人之间，亦或是人与自然之间，宇宙万物都是没有等级制度。从而可以更进一步挖掘诗歌的艺术特点与深层主题意涵和文学价值。

关键词：怀尔特·惠特曼  《自我之歌》  生态女性主义  女性与自然 

Abstract

Song of Myself is regarded as the most representative work of Walt Whitman, the bard of American literature who is renowned as the “father of free verse”. In terms of Song of Myself, it can be called as the epic of American democratic revolution reasoning the multiple subjects, unrestrained enthusiasm, and unrestrained poetic style. There are considerable concerns about this poem of his period at home and abroad, including his democratic thoughts, transcendentalism, natural view, ecological view and so on. In the present author’s view, Walt Whitman, as a romantic poet who is imbued with a sense of responsibility, regards the nature as the “Father of the Earth” and the ocean as Mother. In Song of Myself, he chooses “a spear of grass” to sing about and illustrates his respects for nature and females. In this thesis, the present author will present an reading of Song of Myself that is engaged with Whitman’s ecofeminist concerns that nature, human beings, female and male are living in harmony, hoping to reinforce people's recognition of the oppression towards nature and female under the great influence of patriarchy. Ultimately, a further exploration can be made of the artistic characteristics of poem and the value of literature.

Key words: Walt Whitman  Song of Myself  ecofeminism  nature and female  

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction.1

1.1  Introduction to Walt Whitman 1

1.2  Introduction to Song of Myself1

1.3  Purposes of This Thesis..2

1.4  Structure of this Thesis3

Chapter Two  Literature Review.4

2.1  Introduction..4

2.2  Previous Studies on Song of Myself Abroad4

2.3  Previous Studies on Song of Myself at Home..5

Chapter Three  Theoretical Framework7

3.1  Introduction..7

3.2  Introduction to Ecofeminism7

3.3  The Ecofeminist Literary Criticism.8

3.4  Our Comment10

Chapter Four  An Ecofeminist Interpretation of Song of Myself.11

4.1  Introduction11 

4.2  The Relationship Between Nature and Human Beings11

4.3  The Relationship Between Nature and Female15

Chapter Five  Conclusion.18

Bibliography

Acknowledgements