对《永别了，武器》的生态批评解读

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Abstract Based on the ecological criticism theory, this thesis analyzes the damage and the grave disaster that wars bring to the environment and human beings in A Farewell to Arms. Wars not only bring disaster to human beings and put threat to people’s life and property but also destroy the earth which is the only home of mankind. The interpretation of this novel from the viewpoint of ecological criticism can help us re-recognize the relationship between human and the nature, so that we can find out the best way to protect the environment and realize the harmony of human and nature.54650

Key words: influence of war; ecological criticism; harmony of human and nature

摘要本文结合生态批评理论，探讨《永别了，武器》中战争对环境的破坏及给人类带来的深重灾难。从而揭示出战争的罪恶本质：战争只能给人类带来灾难，威胁人类的生命财产，破坏人类赖以生存的地球。对该小说进行生态批评解读可以帮助我们重新认识人与自然的关系，从而寻求保护环境的方法，实现人与自然和谐相处。

毕业论文关键词：战争影响；生态批评；人与自然和谐相处

Contents

1. Introduction1

1.1 Hemingway and A Farewell to Arms. ..1

1.2 Ecological criticism1

2. Literature Review 2

3. An Ecological Criticism of A Farewell to Arms 3

3.1 The spoilt Nature under the war 3

3.2 The spoilt human beings under the war 5

3.3 The harmony between Nature and the human world.8

4. Conclusion 10

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction

1.1 Hemingway and A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Hemingway is one of the greatest writers in 20th century. He took part in the wars several times. During the First World War, Hemingway volunteered to join the army with the hope to realize the value of his life. He was awarded the lieutenant rank and was sent to the Italian front as an ambulance driver. In order to save the life of a wounded comrade, his knee was badly hurt. Later, in a hospital, he met a nurse called Agnes who later became the prototype of Catherine. After recovery, Hemingway returned to the front as a soldier. It is these war experiences that later bacome his valuable life wealth, making him understand the essence of the war deeply and provide him with a continuous supply of writing materials. A Farewell to Arms is created at the background of the First World War, which illustrates the essence of war through the narration of Henry and Catherine’s love tragedy--- the war only brings grave disasters to human beings and puts threat to people’s lives and property. Besides that, the war also makes people lose their faith. With the influence of the war, people become callous. They show no respect for life, let alone the time they are willing to spend to understand the true meaning of life.

1.2 Ecological criticism

War destroys lives, and, at the same time, it does serious damage to the environment. Since the 1990s, a new type of cultural criticism has gradually risen in the United States -- ecological criticism. Ecological criticism literally seems to be a combination of ecology and literature, but in fact it is not. Although there are some ecology researches and scientifical data about the environment that have been cited in ecological criticism, scientifical composition does not occupy the dominant position. Actually, ecological criticism studies how human thoughts and culture will affect the natural environment, exploring the relationship between literature and environment. It is an extended critique of the culture by reviewing human literary(Zhu Xinfu, 2003: 139). Ecological criticism has a profound ideological root. Although, on the whole, the mainstream of western culture is that people believe in anthropocentrism and try to conquer, control and make use of the nature, we can still find a lot of discourse analysis about the ecological philosophy. These analyses were often neglected at that time. However, with the passage of time and the increasingly serious environmental pollution, they have become the most valuable ideological foundation of ecological criticism. “So far, ecological criticism has experienced three stages: The first stage mainly researched the way in which literature presented the nature and the environment. During the second stage, people put emphasis on the long-neglected works that described the nature and carried out a deep research about the history and the development, the creative achievements, the genre as well as the style of American literature related to the nature. The third stage is trying to create a ecological poetics. By emphasizing the concept of ecosystem, people want to promote the construction of the theory of ecological criticism.”(Glotfelty and Fromm, 1996: 3) The emergence as well as the development of ecological criticism is a good reflection to show people’s thinking about their relationship with the nature. Only with a profound understanding of this relationship, can people find an appropriate way to protect the environment and live in harmony with the nature.