From Love of Nature to Frugal Lifestyles: Nature-oriented Literature of Taiwan Since 1981

• Main Authors: Yang Ming-tu, 楊銘塗
• Other Authors: Lin Yaofu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/23652326134509819700

博士 === 淡江大學 === 西洋語文研究所 === 89 === Taiwan’s nature-oriented literature has risen as an important field of writing. Although it has been neglected by the academic circle of literary study up to now, it will win recognition very soon on this island. Alarmed by the seriousness of ecological crisis, writers are deeply worried and enthusiastic about exploring various ways to help it. This dissertation studies and explicates the ideas about protecting nature in their works-- poems, stories, and environmental essays. It is divided into an introduction, four chapters, and a conclusion. The first chapter shows that nature literature and writing in Taiwan more or less treat the cultivation of love for nature as the foundation of environmental protection. The second chapter treats the principle of noninterference displayed in the literary works and essays. My study discovers that noninterference in these works is not only an expression of respect for environmental ethics but also an understanding of nature as greater and more powerful than human beings. The third chapter focuses on the theme of real actions to save nature. Human actions to save nature here seem contradictory to the principle of noninterference, but they are not, for most of the actions are restitution for damage done to nature or for protecting rare and endangered wildlife and plants. The fourth chapter deals with the relation of frugal life and environmental protection. My research finds that, for nature writers, aboriginal life and the life of the past farming society are most environment- friendly and practicable even today, though they sound strange to our capitalistic way of thinking. Generally speaking, few writers are interested in the theoretical construction of environmental philosophy. This is understandable, for they are so much concerned about the ecological crisis, which is in need of urgent treatment, that theoretical exploration does not seem to be a primary issue.