| Summary: | 博士 === 淡江大學 === 英文學系博士班 === 100 === Metamorphoses in this dissertation stand for changes in form, structure, substance, and mentality. In the planetary system, metamorphoses function on various levels and take place with time and space. Time can be shown through the process of metamorphoses in the form of evolution. The content of space is revealed through nature, which is wired for metamorphoses. The five chapters in this dissertation are correlated by multitudinous metamorphoses.
Leslie Marmon Silko’s Gardens in the Dunes tells of the routes of Indigo’s travels to transatlantic gardens. The travels facilitate Indigo’s connection to the gardens’ rhizomatic roots, which ultimately lead her to sense deeper into the home gardens and fertilize the homeland. In her nomadic existence, Indigo travels to a battery of gardens, but she is constantly en route to the gardens in the dunes. The sand dunes represent a center of intensity that navigates Indigo’s homecoming.
Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea narrates Ged’s rites of passage in his becoming of a true wizard. While developing into a full-fledged wizard, Ged undergoes an internal transformation by first fleeing and then embracing his dark self. In his voyages both on land and sea, Ged comes to realize the internal work of Earthsea that is maintained by the dynamic equilibrium.
Turtle Island encapsulates Gary Snyder’s transpacific encounter that cross-pollinates the East and the West. The book reflects his re-immersion and reinhabitation in the Sierra foothills. The house he named Kitkitdizze is a landmark of his transition and proof of his trans-Pacific encounter. Backtracking to the East, Gary Snyder puts his life into the practice of intercultural marriage, which delineates the contours of Eastern and Western cultural landscape and where the two converge.
Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke employs double articulation and speaks on behalf of nature through animals. Through the speaking animals, double articulation blends animality into humanity. This integration of human and animal voices facilitates our recognition that human and animal races share the same origins. Double articulation serves as a reminder that animality is not foreign to human consciousness.
All Over Creation narrates the Fullers’ metamorphoses from large-scale potato cultivation to a small seeds operation. However, concerning the diversity of plants, the small seeds business turns out to contain more possibilities to produce life than the previous big potato farm. The Fullers’ seeds operation hoards immense capability to preserve and disseminate a great collection of seeds.
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