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This paper is aiming at applying Eco-feminism theory, a relatively new theory, as a main approach to study Emily Dickinson’s works. Specifically, this thesis is designed to explore Emily Dickinson’s ecological awareness and feminist consciousness in her poetry. To achieve this purpose, the present thesis shall be classified into four chapters. Chapter One is a brief introduction to Emily Dickinson and her poetry. The structure of this thesis is also introduced in this chapter. Chapter Two mainly deals with the theoretic framework of this thesis, which is Eco-feminism theory. The introduction of Eco-feminism, its main arguments and Eco-feminist literary criticism are going to be referred to and investigated. Chapter Three discusses the origin of Emily Dickinson’s Eco-feminism awareness. In addition, the social background and her family background surely have a great impact on her minds. Chapter Four is mainly about a study on Emily Dickinson’s poems by the approach of Eco-feminism from the perspective of themes and contents of her works. Some samples of Emily Dickinson’s works are used to explore her Eco-feminism thought. Finally, a conclusion is offered.
II. Theoretical Background
Eco-feminism describes movements and philosophies that link feminism with ecology(Dickinson, Emily 21). Eco-feminism as a cultural and literary theoretical genre attracted the attention of people was in the 1990s. However, the intellectual and theoretical foundation of it can be traced back to the early years of 1970s. This term was cited in the first place by the French scholar Fancoise d ’Eaubonne in her book Women and death (Le Feminisme ou la mort) published in 1974. This book also marks the beginning of western Eco-feminism studies. In the book, author proposed that there was a direct connection between the oppression of women and the denigration of nature, the liberation of women and nature can not be porced. Additionally, eco-feminists draw connections between menstruation and moon cycles, childbirth and creation etc. Women and nature are also united through their common history of oppression by a patriarchal western society.
2.1 Main Concepts and Arguments of Eco-feminism
In 1980s, Eco-feminism has made a significant progress. In 1980, the Women’s Joint Declaration in Pentagon Protest Movement issued in America is regarded as the first Eco-feminism Declaration, which exactly conveyed the main concerns of Eco-feminism at the early development stage, and also indicated the further direction of this theory.
New achievements are obtained in the 1990s. Karen J. Warren makes a detailed illustration of the core assumption of ecological feminists. She in the introduction to Ecological Feminism says that: Ecological feminism (Eco-feminism) is an umbrella term which captures a variety of multicultural perspectives on the nature of the connections within social systems of domination between those humans in subdominant or subordinate position, particularly women, and the domination of nonhuman nature(Dickinson, Martha Bianchi 112).
Eco-feminist Ariel Kay Salleh points out that men’s hatred against women leads to their hatred against nature, which dominates men’s action, and also is the principle mechanism dominates western / patriarchal culture as a whole(Johnson, Thomas H 48-54). However, Australia ecological feminists Val Plumwood expresses her concerns on women. She suggests that women can not obtain true personal development though they have abandoned their inner world and comfortable positions at home. They can only have the opportunity to become real partners of men, and participate in the battle of controlling and dominating nature. The duality between men and women either can be bridged or become a harmonious whole. Furthermore, the female members in this long-term confrontation in the dual structure can only be inosculated to be male members(Johnson, Thomas H 263).
In the western culture, it has been a long time that nature is regarded as female. Eco-feminists investigate the relationship between environmental crisis and gender discrimination. In the introduction to Eco-feminism: Women, Culture, Nature, Karen Warren declares: What makes Eco-feminism distinct is its insistence that nonhuman nature and naturism are feminist issues. Eco-feminists philosophy extends familiar feminist critiques of domination to nature (Luo Ting 83). Vandana Shiva claims that women have a special connection to the environment through their daily interactions and this connection has been ignored. She says that women in subsistence economies who produce “wealth in partnership with nature, have been experts in their own right of holistic and ecological knowledge of nature’s processes.” However she makes the point that “these alternative modes of knowing, which are oriented to the social benefits and sustenance needs are not recognized by the capitalist reductionist paradigm, because it fails to perceive the interconnectedness of nature, or the connection of women's lives, work and knowledge with the creation of wealth”(qtd. in MacGregor Sherilyn 61).