（英语语言文学专业论文）论亚哈与桑提亚哥的人类中心主义.pdf

摘 要 亚哈是美国十九世纪中期的浪漫主义作家赫尔曼麦尔维尔的白鲸中的主 人公。 白鲸是世界文学史上优秀的小说之一。借“裴阔德”号捕鲸船上唯一的幸 存者以实玛利之口，作者讲述了主人公亚哈船长和捕鲸船上的其他船员疯狂地 捕杀鲸鱼的故事。船长亚哈为了实现自己报仇的私欲，疯狂地捕杀白鲸。这种偏执 的行为最终使他走向了与自然的完全对立，并逐渐陷入了自身的精神危机，最终断 送了自己和其他船员的生命。 桑提亚哥是美国 20 世纪作家厄内斯特海明威的老人与海中的主人公。小 说主要讲述了主人公古巴老渔夫桑提亚哥在 84 天没有打到鱼的情况下，利用 85 这 个幸运数目于第 85 天独自出海，与一条大鱼和一群鲨鱼搏斗了两天两夜的故事。 生态批评的研究主要考察在文学作品中，通过对人类所处的文化、历史背景的分 析，来感知与反映人与自然的关系。在生态批评中，自然被延伸为整个生态圈。生 态学者坚持生态整体观的观念，他们认为，生态批评的一个重要使命之一，就是站 在生态整体主义的立场上，对人类中心主义进行有力的批判。 一些经典作品中隐藏着根深蒂固的人类中心主义思想和征服自然、 统治自然的欲 望，为此，生态批评者认为有必要站在生态整体主义的立场上，以生态的尺度对这 些经典予以解构、颠覆，甚至重写。综上所述，本文将采用文本研究的方法，用生 态批评的视角，对两部作品中的主人公进行解读，批判他们的人类中心主义，重新 审视人与自然的关系。 论文第一章简介麦尔维尔的生平和作品白鲸以及海明威的生平和作品老人 与海 ，并且回顾国内外有关白鲸与老人与海的不同研究成果。 第二章简介人类中心主义及其文化渊源和生态批评主义。 第三章论文的主体部分： 在第二章基础上， 从生态批评的角度对两部作品中主人 公分别从人与自然，人与人，人与自我这三种关系的失衡现象进行研究。因为人与 自然、人与人、人与自我的关系是相互依存，相互作用的，因此分析两部作品中主 要人类代表与自然代表间的不同，揭示出作品所蕴含的人与自然之间不同的对立关 系所导致的两个主人公相同命运，不同结局。 第四章是论文的结论部分： 人类中心主义只能导致人类的灭亡， 人类只有留意大 自然的警告、尊重生命，保持生态整体主义，才能保证人与自然真正走向和谐。 因此，从生态批评的视角来解读作品中主人公，有助于我们全新的理解作品，而 且在生态危机日趋严重的今天，这种解读也有极大的现实意义。 关键词：麦尔维尔；白鲸；海明威；老人与海；人类中心主义；生态批评 abstract with the rapid development of science and technology, human beings are able to produce much more material wealth in this short period of history than the total production made in the previous thousands of years, but it is ironic that we have no access to restrict our ambition of domination, conquest and occupation. always holding firmly in the minds the legendary opinion that man is the ruler of nature, we human beings have been trying to take as much as possible from the physical world and hence we plunder and damage the natural environment allegedly in order to exercise our rights over nature. meanwhile, the environment has been polluted with unforeseen seriousness and destruction, resulting in the imbalance of the ecosystem and giving rise to the survival threat on men themselves. what is worse, ecological imbalance and environmental pollution have rapidly spread into the spiritual space of human beings and secretly corroded their souls. thus, people have fallen into a serious spiritual crisis, even losing their nature. what will man do to overcome his spiritual crisis? both melville and hemingway have foreseen the consequent of spiritual crisis with their ecological consciousness in their times. the exposure of the imbalance of natural ecology social ecology and spiritual ecology are obvious in their works and the destruction brought about by the industrial revolution comes easily into view. industrial civilization not only destroys beautiful nature, but also ruins humanity and causes painful loss of self. as it is known, literature is the reflection of peoples daily lives. it is the product of our deep contemplation and understanding of our own existence. in other words, literature is a spiritual weapon that has the function of exerting great influence on mans ideology, affection and behavior. so the research of literature will be helpful for the survival of human beings and the whole earth. above all mentioned, author of this thesis will put ecocriticism into consideration. ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. there are so many points of contact in ecocriticism according to ecocritics. therefore, the author will mainly use anthropocentrism as its guiding theory. anthropocentrism is a system of beliefs and practices that favor humans over other organisms; it believes that humans are entitled to make the greatest use of the surrounding natural world, and humans have a superior value over animals and other beings in nature. in ecocriticism nature is expanded to refer to the whole ecological circle on the earth and the interrelations in between. ecocritics stick to ecological equality and holism, arguing that nature is a living entity that has its intrinsic value and all natural objects have their right to exist. reacting against anthropocentrism is the main commitment of the ecological holism. some classics deeply rooted in such thought as anthropocentrism, the desire of conquering nature and controlling of nature. so ecocritics must take some measures to deconstruct and overturn and rewrite these classics standing on the point of ecoholism. this thesis will focus on researching the protagonists of two american works that are moby dick and the old man and the sea through ecocritical perspective. first, briefly introduce two protagonists. ahab is the protagonist of moby dick. moby dick, the masterpiece of herman melville, who is a mid-nineteenth century american writer, is generally acknowledged as a classic work in the history of american literature. through the mouth of ishmael, one of the sailors on the whaling ship pequod and only survivor, melville allegorically and vividly depicts the cruel killing of whales by captain ahab and the sailors on the whaling ship, and their tragically being drowned in the sea. the monomaniac behavior of captain ahab to seek for and to revenge himself on moby dick eventually leads to his being absolute opposite to nature and his own spiritual crisis. consequently, he loses his life and leads the other sailors to destiny. santiago is the protagonist of the old man and the sea. the old man and the sea, the work of ernest hemingway, who is one of the 20th century american writers in the world literature. his work the old man and the sea has attracted numerous readers and a great many scholars all over the world. the novelette mainly tells us the old cuba man named santiago has gone eighty-four days without taking a fish, he wants to go far into the sea for fishing with the lucky number eighty-five. during the fishing, he alone fights against the big marlin and sharks on the sea for two days and two nights. the previous many critics have spent much academic energy on each protagonist from different perspective. but they are limited to view each protagonist as an undefeatable “hero” and to praise them mental triumph, which have been lagged behind the times. of course, few critics have spent much academic energy on each protagonist from the newly-developed ecocriticism, but there are not few critics who portrayed the two protagonists together from the ecocritical perspective. second is the introduction of anthropocentrism and ecocriticism. ecocriticism pays much attention to the relationship between man and nature and introspect the position of man in the whole ecosystem. it is concerned about the ways that nature is reflected in literary texts throughout human cultural history and entailing critical analysis. third is that this thesis will analyze two protagonists from the ecocritical perspective by careful researching two works so that the author can disclose the position of human beings in the whole ecosphere and reexamine the relationships between man and nature. at the same time, we point out that the human beings are doomed if they persist the anthropocentrism. now, this thesis can be divided into four parts. chapter one: the introductory part of the thesis. it summarizes melvilles life and his novel moby dick and ernest hemingways life and his famous work the old man and the sea, and makes a general survey of melville and hemingway study both at home and abroad. at the same time, we should point out human beings must give up their anthropocentrism or human-centered opinion, if they want to live with nature harmoniously. chapter two mainly talks the background knowledge of anthropocentrism and ecocriticism. chapter three is the main body of this thesis, which offers a careful reading of the two novels and careful analysis two protagonists from three aspects: natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology. it focuses on the revelation of imbalance of the three aforementioned relationships in two novels. it tends to have a cultural study of two works based on a scrupulous analysis and depiction of the main characters in both works, their visions toward nature symbolized by the white whale and the big marlin respectively in two works and the different aftermaths under anthropocentrism and ecological holism. in their novels, nature has been spoiled by the invasion of industrialization, which also leads to the disharmonious human relationships and the alienation of humanity. the materialized kin relationship and that between men reflect the reality of the industrial society where human relationship becomes very cold and has been distorted seriously. it really states the loss of man and nature and distorted human relationships and loss of self, at the same time they are interdependent and interactive in the whole ecosystem. the loss of nature results in the loss of self. in fact, the spiritual ecology of man-and-self is very important for keeping harmony between man and nature. chapter four is the conclusion. melville and hemingway foreshadowed total destruction of both man and nature by the physically and spiritually tragic endings of ahab and santiagotypical representatives of anthropocentrism that advocate human-centeredness. as a matter of fact, two novels not only expose the disharmony of nature, society and man by realistically revealing the degradation of nature, the ruin of human relationships and the loss of self, but also offer the possibility of solutions to these problems by wariness the warning from the nature and respecting for nature so as to construct a harmonious ecosystem. we human beings can only restrain our desire and can get the sustainable development with non human beings in the earth. to read ahab and santiago from the perspective of ecocriticism helps us to get a new understanding of the relationship between nature, society and man with the ecological consciousness, and it also has a realistic meaning in the 21st century. key words： herman melville; moby dick; ernest hemingway; the old man and the sea; anthropocentrism; ecocriticism chapter 1. introduction 1 chapter 1 introduction 1.1 the background of the selected topic with the rapid development of science and technology, human beings are easy to produce much more material wealth in this short period of history than the total production made in the preceding thousands of years, but it is unlucky that we have no accurate means to restrict our ambition of domination, conquering and possession. we fully believe that man is the ruler of nature, we human beings have been trying to get as much as possible from the physical world and hence we make up our mind and damage the natural environment in order to exercise our rights over nature. indeed, we are easily capable of killing most insects, diseases, weeds, and parasites by using modern chemical pesticides and this has allowed us to recognize the lower food prices brought about by a specialized, mechanized, standardized and industrialized agriculture. at the same time, the development of industry seems to be offering us an assumption that the welfare of human beings is in severe conflict with that of the physical world. on one hand, today global eco-environmental crisis has been turned severely. on the other hand, those are also severely threatening the existence of human race. in a word, it is the side effect of development of science and technology and the conception that man is the master of nature. if we insist on thinking that opinion, the spiritual harm of human beings will pose direct threat to the existence of the whole planet we are living on. so in such a serious situation, we have to ask ourselves a question: is it still possible for human race to live with physical world on the earth harmoniously? it is well-known to us, literature is a spiritual weapon that has the function of exerting great influence on mans ideology, affection and behavior. literature can reflect peoples daily lives. it is the product of our deep thinking and understanding of our own existence. meanwhile literature not only is from social life, but also has an important effect on it. the global ecological crises, which asked people to think more about our status in the whole nature, came out and presented pressing challenges on our dignity and existence. the romantic nature writing at an earlier age whose concentration is only to sing the beauty of nature highly has become a narrow term in that case. many of the conscious and sensitive litterateurs or literary critics began to pay attention to the serious ecological problems and man, nature and self: an ecocritical perspective on ahab and santiago 2 ecological literature under such a worsening global environment. for the ecological litterateurs, they always persist that rejection of the incorrect anthropocentrism as well as a claim that human and nonhuman life and nature in general should be researched. with its academic research of literary works, ecocriticism examines the literary theme of the relationship between man and nature thoroughly, answers such questions as what human beings should do towards the natural resources, what role human beings are playing in the natural world, what hurt man will get if they treat the physical world without any intention, and so on. and the doctrine of ecocriticism is to further wake up human races ecological consciousness and urge us to protect the physical environment by all means and take the road of sustainable development in order to make the harmonious relationship between man and nature come true. but what does ecocriticism really mean according to the main supporters of the literary criticism? what are the rules or importance of the ecological-oriented literary criticism? in what kinds of literary works can the new criticism be used to look into the deep relationship between man and nature? this thesis will give answers to all these questions. so, let us briefly introduce the authors and their works. 1.2 introduction to moby dick and the old man and the sea 1.2.1 introduction to the author and moby dick herman melville was famous for his novels of the sea and his masterpiece moby dick (1851), a whaling adventure. the work was only recognized as a masterpiece 30 years after melvilles death. herman melville was born in new york city into an established merchant family. he was the third child of eight. his father died when he was 12. his mother was left alone to raise the children. through his mothers influence, biblical stories became a part of melvilles imagination from his early childhood. melville shipped out in 1839 as a cabin boy on the whaler acushnet in order to search of adventures. he took part in the us navy later, and started his years long voyages on ships, sailing both the atlantic and the south seas. melville returned to his mothers house to write about his adventures in his middle of 20 century. he married elisabeth shaw in 1847. later he became friends with hawthorne. he chapter 1. introduction 3 could hardly fulfilled moby dick if his friend did not encourag him to change it from a story full of details about whaling, into an allegorical novel. some critics even pointed out that to want to be familiar with the nineteenth-century american mind american itself, one has to read this book. it is one of the best novels presenting the severe fight between man and nature in american literature with its rich content in though. it is usually regarded as a classic work in the history of american literature and world literature. melville describes the cruel killing of the whales by captain ahab and the sailors on his whaling ship, and their tragically ending in the sea through the mouth of ishmael, one of the sailors on the whaling ship pequod and the only survivor. at the same time melville also indicates that if human beings are too self-centered and showing contempt over nature and other beings in nature, they will inevitably get punishment from nature. the novel also discloses the writers strong ecological consideration over ecological crisis and implies the right road human beings should take. at that time american capitalism was extending quickly at that time; the industrial revolution had been completed. they blind pillaged nature in order to satisfy their expanding desire. this great work was reconfirmed in american literature until 1920s. then a series of studies on melvilles life and works quickly came out. criticism and commentary on moby dick have continuously mounted in the last two decades. 1.2.2 introduction to the author and the old man and the sea ernest hemingway is recognized as one of great writers of the 20th century in the world. hemingways popularity still remains in american history after for a full generation since his suicide. his contributions to the american literature writing were his famous iceberg principle and the success of his plain and brief style in expressing basic emotions. he was born in illinois. after he was born, the whole family moved to their summer cottage in northern michigan, a place which was full of beautiful scenery and close to the natural environment where the child could play, eat, sleep with a kind of passionate enjoyment. the greatest gift of his father gave to the little boy was the knowledge and affectionate love of nature. ernest hemingways ecological consciousness also owned a man, nature and self: an ecocritical perspective on ahab and santiago 4 lot to his traveling experiences. the plot of the old man and the sea is quite simple with the main content concentrated on the three days fishing behaviors of the old man named santiago. the old cuban fish man santiago has been unable to catch a fish for eighty-four days. he believed that he w