An Ecofeminist Reading of Margaret Atwood's Surfacing

• Main Authors: Yu-Jing Hsieh, 謝育菁
• Other Authors: Hsiao-Chen Chiang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/04856566174417372704

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 英語研究所 === 94 === This thesis attempts to interpret Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing in terms of ecofeminism to offer a different vision toward the relationship of not only men and women but also human and nature presented in this novel, and to explore the role nature takes and the power nature endows in the process of the female protagonist’s transformation and self-reconstruction. This thesis contains five sections. In Chapter One, I introduce the brief biography of Margaret Atwood, literature reviews, and the motivation of this thesis. In Chapter Two, I build up a theoretical framework for this thesis, where I refer to four related conceptions of Ecofeminism revealed in Margaret Atwood’s novel Surfacing: opposing the Western dominant culture, challenging the Capitalist oppression, praising and advocating Ecofeminist spirituality, and establishing Ecofeminist ethic. Based upon the central ideas of ecofeminism, in this thesis, I try to anatomize Margaret Atwood’s masterpiece Surfacing to explore the affinities between the ecofeminist thought and the major concern of this novel. In the third chapter of my thesis, I discuss how three Western cultural biases— androcentrism, anthropocentrism, and capitalism function to cause the victimization of the female and the environment in Margaret Atwood’s novel Surfacing. In the fourth chapter of my thesis, I focus mainly on analyzing the transformation of the female protagonist in the novel Surfacing. It is anatomized how the power and inspiration of nature help her find a way out of victimhood and face her true self bravely so that in the end of the novel, she can regain new life and further build up a new ethic to improve the relationship between not only the male and the female but also human and nature. The final chapter of the thesis is the conclusion, which summarizes the primary points of the previous chapters and offer suggestion for further study. Through exploring Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing in light of ecofeminism, this thesis tries to open up a new insight into this great author’s ideas and their affinities with the ecofeminist thought. Moreover, this study hopes to awaken the readers’ awareness to improve the relationship between human and nature and make the readers take the female protagonist’s transformation in this novel as a mirror to learn to cherish the valuable earth we live in with care, compassion, and respect. Significantly, as the central conception Margaret Atwood wants to convey through the novel Surfacing, in this way, the world can be founded on the equality and mutual respect of men and women as well as the flourishing coexistence of human beings and all creatures in nature.