| Summary: | 博士 === 淡江大學 === 英文學系 === 91 === With the emergence of the environmental justice movement, the study of traditional nature writing seems to be sidelined gradually. The attention of many scholars of literature has become funneled toward the power struggle between the privileged and the disadvantaged in literary works. The question is: Does this shifting of attention to down-to-earth political issues and social conflicts really help people solve the problems we are now facing regarding the use of the land or our environment in general? And, are traditional literary studies bogged down in their text-oriented analysis and have they failed to offer any timely help when our environment seems to have turned against us? Is it necessary for traditional nature writing to take on an activist bent in order to be of any help in the worsening situation?
I argue in this dissertation that nature writing and the study of it still play an important role with regard to finding a way out of the current environmental dilemma. At a time when environmental problems can almost unanimously be ascribed to the prevalence of capitalistic-consumerist culture, nature writing is an indispensable antidote to take to sober up to the fact that capitalist consumerism is the main driving force that alienates humans from the land. Following what advocates of a growth economy preach would do irreparable damage to nature and thus to humans themselves, for they─man and nature─are inseparable.
The first chapter of this dissertation deals with anti-environmental sentiments that are rampant in the United States, which to a large measure explains why people are encountering great difficulties stopping the continuing deterioration of our environment there and elsewhere around the world. People in the anti-environmentalist camp are all strong believers in a market economy and a scientific-technological fix for environmental problems. The inadequacy of their belief is expounded in detail. The second chapter highlights the import of nature writing and its potency in reversing the trend that is created by the consumer culture and in re-establishing and recognizing the tie between man and nature that never ceases to exist but is often ignored. The third chapter moves on to the works of Annie Dillard and uses her nature writing as a wake-up call for people who are overwhelmed by the complex causes of our environmental problems. The main thrust is focused on her way of consciousness-raising and how a modern city-dweller gets reconnected with nature, where all life originates and upon which it depends.
As for curbing the downward spiral of our environmental crisis, an actual revolution may be far-fetched, but a new way of life engendered by a revolutionary thinking is a must. Nature writing in this case provides a good rationale for that change. By directing our attention toward the outside world (to things other than human), nature writing unsettles the easy façade of contemporary life, but at the same time sets a model for people who wonder (or never wonder) what is an appropriate relation between man and nature. From there, a better environment can be looked forward to.
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