文献综述
1. Introduction1.1 Research Background The mid-nineteenth century was the pinnacle of capitalism in the United States with rapid growth in industry. In this period, conquest and possession were the themes of the times. Human beings gradually lost themselves in the plundering of nature and were not in awe of it any more. As industry continued to develop and expand, the ecological environment deteriorated into the ecological crisis and then became a global environmental problem. It is mainly manifested in the destruction and depletion of natural resources and the pollution and deterioration of the ecological environment, for example, atmospheric pollution and biological extinction. The growing ecological crisis has led to an unprecedented concern for the environment and a renewed understanding and reflection on the relationship between human and nature. And the development of the ecological theory has contributed to the appearance of ecologism, which was born out of a reflection on the ecological crisis. Having sailed on many fishing boats, Melville had a rich seafaring life, and what he saw and heard during his career became an invaluable source for his writing. In Moby Dick, he created a series of characters, for example, Captain Ahab, who showed the inevitable conflict between man and nature, making it a far-reaching study of ecologism.1.2 Herman Melville and Moby DickHerman Melville (1819-1891), an American novelist, essayist and poet in the 19th century, is as famous as Nathaniel Hawthorne. His famous novels are also known as classics including Typee (1846), Omoo (1847), Mardi (1849) (collectively known as The Polynesia Trilogy), White-Jacket (1850), Moby Dick (1851), Pierre (1852), and the short story collection The Story of the Square (1856). Melville did not attract due attention before his death, while his fame began to rise in the 1920s and was widely introduced as one of the peak figures of American literature. Maugham, a British writer, believed that Moby Dicks position in the history of literature is higher than that of Mark Twain and others. Melville is also known as Shakespeare of the United States.Herman Melville grew up in a famous family in New York City. In his youth, he was well-off, well-educated and formed the habit of reading. He was interested in all kinds of books. When he was twelve, his family underwent changes so he had to drop out of school and work to help support his family. He had served as a bank clerk, a farm worker, a boy in a leather shop, a rural teacher, etc. The misfortune of the family along with the sudden change of the environment made Melville feel depressed. As a result, he formed a complex and deep character. In order to avoid worse condition, Melville, who was only nineteen, worked on a cargo ship bound for Britain. Sailing broadened his horizons, and he found a definitely new world in the ship where captain dominated everything and was the representative of authority. Life at sea was extremely difficult and even dangerous, especially the quite different relationship between people that all crew were equal to each other. Differences between them in family, religious belief and cultural background were not important. When Melville saw dirty slums and ragged, sallow faced people, the ugly reality of capitalism shocked the young man. This first voyage provided him with creative materials and played an important role in the formation of his thoughts of democracy, equality and humanitarianism. After returning from England, Melville became a sailor on a whaling ship. The navigation career from 1841 to 1844 had a great impact on his life, and he spent considerable time on the whaling ship. In this way, his thought was basically established. Rough experience, rich life and strong thoughts constituted the basis of his writing career in the future. His works are not only a portrayal of his life, but also a portrayal of his thoughts. Four years of experience at sea had greatly enriched his knowledge and thoughts, and provided inexhaustible materials for his future literary creation. He took the needs of readers into account, and of course he did not give up expressing his thoughts through his works. The experience and lessons of creating Typee and other works had made full preparations for his future writing of Moby Dick. Published in the 19th century, Moby Dicks theme is about ocean, which describes the story that Captain Ahab wanted to chase and kill Moby Dick. Finally, he and the entire ship personnel as well as Moby Dick perish together was the inevitable outcome except Ishmael. This novel fully shows Melvilles feelings about whaling life during that time, and the story creates an atmosphere where people may run into various dangers or even lose their lives at any time. Ahab, the captain of the whaling ship Pequod, was bitten off a leg by a cruel white whale when he was chasing Moby Dick. As a result, he was full of hatred and wanted to kill the white whale. He lost his reasonable thought and became an arbitrary paranoid. He led the crew to sail at sea for a long time, met all kinds of people and ships and finally got the information of Moby Dick. When they were fighting, the ship was damaged and the crew were injured and restrained. Finally, The whole ship fell into the sea, and only the sailor Ishmael was saved. Moby Dick is mainly set in the unpredictable ocean. In this work, Captain Ahab is a man who has rich sailing experience and dares to fight against the secular world. He has decades of sailing experience, and in front of him, countless whales were stabbed by his superb technology. When facing dangers and difficulties, he still goes forward bravely. He has lofty qualities and a broad mind, but at the same time, he is paranoid and crazy, and his hatred for Moby Dick forces his eyes. Therefore, the depiction of Captain Ahab in the novel is characterized by a contradictory and multiple personality, giving him a fuzzy and complex image feature. This image feature shows that Captain Ahab is an individual with beauty and ugliness, good and evil at the same time, which makes the real image of him. In short, under the description and outline of the author, the sea with white waves and the ghost beluga whale are integrated on the sinister and evil track. In order to make readers truly feel the danger of the sea, the author tries to exaggerate the atmosphere of tension and fear from the first chapter of Moby Dick. Rueckert (2002) put forward that the author tends to lead readers into the Peter coffin whale Inn, which is homophonic with the coffin. The strangely decorated residence is full of ominous omens, reminiscent of the ubiquitous God of death. Even the church where people seek spiritual asylum cant make one get rid of the fear of death. In the face of seamens tombstones buried in the sea, the readers can directly feel the approaching breath of the culprit who claimed peoples lives. The battle between the captain and Moby Dick also has provoked the rumination about how to treat nature appropriately.1.3 Need of the studyAs productive forces and science along with technology develop by heaps and bounds, the relationship between man and nature is also varying. In the past, many natural phenomena could not be scientifically explained, and human beings were full of awe of nature. After the Industrial Revolution, as technology is increasingly developed, mankind began to have the idea of conquering nature, fighting against nature, and took corresponding actions. Anthropocentrism has become a universally accepted truth, and the possession of nature has become the goal of human society. However, all human actions will eventually eat their own consequences. Bate (2000) had noted that mans wanton destruction of nature was punished by nature itself. The ecological environment people are facing is deteriorating day by day, so humans begin to reflect on themselves and want to seek a new relationship with nature. This paper is to analyze Moby Dick from the perspective of ecologism, which has been a hot topic. Ahab and Moby Dick are at odds, but for others, man and nature are not completely opposite, which also makes the readers start thinking about the relationship between them. Ecologism tells the relationship between natural environment and human activities, so the author applies it to the analysis of Moby Dick. From the perspective of the crews treatment, this thesis analyzes and discusses the real way of getting along with nature, and also help the readers understand more clearly the relationship between man and nature to seek the optimal solution to the problem.1.4 Structure of the paperThis paper consists of four chapters. Chapter One introduces the background information of the author, Herman Melville, his novel Moby Dick, together with the need of the study. Chapter Two discusses previous study achievements of this novel and significance of the study. An overview of ecologism, including its development, application to literature and so on is also given in this chapter. Chapter Three is divided into three parts: the first part is to compare the different attitudes of people on the ship to Moby Dick, and the symbol of the nature. The second part focuses on analyzing causes of differences from economic and personal aspects. The third part tries to offer some practical suggestions to relieve the serious natural crisis based on the analysis of ecologism above. Chapter Four serves as the conclusion of the thesis.References:Bate, J. (2000). The Song of the Earth. London: Oxford University Press.Chen, Delin. (2017). The Seas in The Bible and (Early) Modern Literature Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick and The Life of Pi. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 7 (11), 1108-1112. Davey, M. J. (ed.) (2004). On Herman Melvilles Moby Dick. Britain: Routledge.Giovannini, G. (2015). Melvilles Moby Dick. The Explicator, 5 (1), 14-17.Hayes, K. J. (ed.) (2008). The Cambridge introduction to Herman Melville. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.Martina, P. (2013). Hunting Moby Dick: Melville in the Global Context of the American Studies Classroom. Leviathan, 15 (3), 81-89.Melville, H. (2001). Moby Dick. Bantam classics.Sandford, C. (2019). Herman Melville: obsessed by good, evil and Moby Dick. America, 221 (8), 1-4.Zhao Yue. (2021). An Eco-critical Analysis of Moby Dick. Journal of Innovation and Social Science Research, 8 (9), 41-43.常耀信 (2005)，精编美国文学教程。
天津：南开大学出版社。
程虹 (2001)，寻归荒野。
北京：生活读书新知三联书店。
杜秀娟 (2011)，马克思主义生态哲学思想历史发展研究。
北京: 北京师范大学出版社。
郭海平 (2009),《白鲸》中人与自然多维关系的伦理阐释。
外国文学研究，(03)：34-43。
胡铁生 (2008), 对抗与和谐：生态意义上的矛盾与统一论麦尔维尔《白鲸》中人与自然的关系。
您可能感兴趣的文章
- 从《酒国》葛浩文英译本看文学作品中隐喻的翻译策略文献综述
- 翻译美学视角下的张培基散文英译研究文献综述
- 在孤独中走向独立——论《天使,望故乡》中尤金的成长之路 Road to Independence in Solitude: Eugene in Look Homeward, Angel文献综述
- 《水浒传》中比喻修辞的英译对比研究 A contrastive study of translating metaphors in All men are brothers文献综述
- A Study of Body Language in Ang Lee’s Movie from the Perspective of Cross-cultural Communication文献综述
- 浅析国产视觉小说游戏英译的翻译策略——以国产独立游戏《WILL：美好世界》文献综述
- 英语结果句的词汇构式融合进路研究文献综述
- 美剧《犯罪心理》叙事策略研究文献综述
- 表情符在英语日常交际中的应用文献综述
- 汉语歇后语的语言特征及其英译策略分析—以《红楼梦》为例文献综述
