《一粒麦种》的女性生态解读

徐萌萌

摘 要：恩古吉，肯尼亚作家，用英语和库尤语写作，1964年获乌干达马赫雷雷大学英语文学学士学位，后获英国里兹硕士学位。1964年回国后在内罗毕大学任教，后为文学系主任。他善于用英语书写自己的民族历史，在批评文学史上，他的《一粒麦种》一直被视为后殖民批评的经典文本，在文本中借一个民族叛徒在独立庆祝大会上主动坦白罪行的前后，描写了“茅茅运动”中各色人等的思想态度。本文通过生态批评的分支女性生态批评对文本进行解读，旨在挖掘文本中所蕴含的生态思想，从而推动后殖民作品中更多的生态解读，瓦解在后殖民文本中所隐藏的人类中心主义以及二元对立思想。女性生态批评是生态学，深层生态学与女性主义的产物， 它关注的是对妇女的统治和对自然的征服之间的关系。本文通过解读后殖民时期白人与黑人女性的地位以及她们的社会生活与关系，挖掘在男性主导下的社会中女性的“被隔离”与“边缘化”事实，消除男性与女性之间的征服与被征服的二元对立关系在后殖民地还任重道远。

关键词：女性生态；女性主义

Abstract： “A Grain of Wheat”is a long novel written by Ngugiwa Thiongo， an African writer who used to study in British university. The author is good at using English to write the history of his homeland. This novel， A Grain of Wheat has been seen the most outstanding representative among the post-colonial works in the literary area of Africa. It describes a fact that a traitor admits his sin during the celebration to express various attitudes and social life of the people in the post-colonial period. This thesis tries to excavate the ecological elements in the novel and analysis it on the basis of the three branches of the ecology， which are the ecofeminism whose goal is to deconstruct the human centralism and to omit the ideas of the dominant dualism. This paper would present the comparison of the natural descriptions between the pre the post colonial period in Kenya， which reflects the invasions damage to the colonial lands from the whites. It reflects the expectation from the author which is to recover the original ecological system in his homeland. The following part is the analysis the sick relations of the people in Kenya by using the ecofeminism technique. During the long history of the country， the womens rights are ignored by the men-oriented society and they are also put into the edge of the society. Improving the womens status and eliminating the men-oriented ideas should be put forward.

keyword：ecofeminism

一、Women being lost

1. the White Women in the novel

Alison Jaggar points out that patriarchal and male dominated culture “defines masculinity and femininity as contrasting forms. In the descriptions of the novel， men are defined as active， women as passive： men are intellectual， women are intuitive， men are inexpressive， women emotional， men are strong， women weak， men are dominant， women submissive…”（Jaggar， 1983：316） Especially in the descriptions of the whites in the novel， the representative of the white women are Linda. “Ugly and virgin and be hate by the Africans.” Sometimes she has some abnormal thoughts and actions. The doctor Linda is easily sinking into an emotion which brought a feeling that one couldnt feel the safety when a stranger came over to her. Her experience of being raped gives her a shadow that she feared the others especially the blacks. The author also gives the concern and the positive praise about the doctor who could strive for the rights as the men. “At parties she hated seeing him talk or laugh with other women. But she couldnt …when they ought to have been happy.”（Ngugiwa Thiongo ：50） Women should be treated the same position as the white men that is reflected in the novel. The woman are seen as a material substance in the relation between the woman her lover. The quarrel and the fight happened frequently. “Go to hell， I am not your husband！” he （her lover） shouted at her and breaks out of the house， leaving her crying in the long sofa. The lover lost his life in the train accident which is the kind of the punishment. Back to the woman herself， she always thinks over the relations between her and her husband.

2.The African women losing their identities

The women in Africa are worse in their ecological environment. When the news that the England is ruled by the queen Elizabeth comes into the ears of the Africans， they couldnt believe it. The queen is insulted by several conversations among the African men. As a branch of feminism， ecofeminism marks a departure from liberal or Maxist feminism. For instance， liberal feminism seeks to end the discrimination and attain equality for women. The problem with this view is that in a culture in which masculine traits and characteristics dominate， equality for women amounts to little more than requiring women to adopt these dominant male traits. “Women can liberate themselves from an oppressive identification with nature only if they， like men， become oppressors of nature.” （YangHaiyan：11）In reading this novel， we could find the three hiding wishes of the author： The image of the women who are conquered and inflexible should be deconstructed by the following writers who aim to describe their homelands history. Men-oriented idealism and the slander to the women existed in the African society should be avoided. We could find those ideas in the conversation of the Africans or among the Africans and the whites.

“How many wives have you？ She asked. This was her favorite question to Africans， it began the day she discovered her latest cook had three wives… “Not married？ I thought you people- Are you going to buy a wife？” （Ngugiwa Thiongo ：38）

The women are taken as a trade in those words spoken by the whites， which reflects the prejudice of the whites to the African society and the marriage among the Africans. A man could marry several women， and these customs which reflect the unequal state of the women in the social life are transmitted to modern world in some countries of the Africa. Women in some tent are equal to the material. “Going to buy a wife” is an information to us which reflects the marriage and the family relations are distorted and the women are ignored in the dominating area of the Africans social life.

二、The reasons why the women lose their identities

1.Analysis of the women s ignored identity from the perspective of Ecofeminsm

As Mary Mellor points out， “Ecofeminism brings together elements of the feminist and the green movements， while at the same time offering a challenge to both. It takes from the green movement a concern about the impact of human activities on the human world…from feminist the view of humanity as gendered in ways that subordinate， exploit and oppress women.”（Mary Mellors1991：1）

During the history of the Africa， the period when the women ruled the whole country is short and hard years to the men in this land. The men felt no free under the ruling of the women， so they revolt for the sake of the freedom. The revolt from the men is a success to all the men. So when the women are pregnant， they could seize the power from the women. For the heroines， women need the relaxation and the love. In the eyes of the men， the women should stay at the inner-world to take a good rest such as bringing up babies and relaxing in the family.

2.The analysis of the reason from the aspect of economic position

As the women in African are oppressed by the man-oriented social elements， the rights of the marriage and the expressing their demands are usually ignored. When describing the trades with the women in Africa， the representative of the capitalism is Gikonyo is also laughed by the African men. Women are hard-working and have the same ability of dealing with social affairs s the men. They could make business with the businessman like Gikonyo， who are the good example of the African men. The novel also mentioned the womens different treating in the area of education. Unlike the market women who are in the lowest class and bargaining with the people in the low class， the women in the western world have the same opportunity to go to the school to accepting the education. But the treating on the women in Africa are greatly different. There appeared a watering machine in the square which is named by Gikonyo， and when a women points out that the water is spoiling out in race， the crowd burst into laugh. The womens state in the society is so low that any voice who could represent the womens idea is laughed including the everyday affaires. The state of the childrens education is even worse in the African society.

三、How to liberate the women according to the ecofeminists

Alison Jaggar provides a framework for organizing four types of feminism-liberal， Marxist， socialist， and radical- which have their more or less bearing on ecofeminism. Liberal feminists deny that any relevant difference between men and women exists. They argue that all human beings possess the same nature as free and rational beings so that they devote much of their energy to locating discrimination and fighting for equal rights and equal opportunity. Maxist feminists argue that women are oppressed because they are relegated to domestic and therefore， dependent forms of labor. Plant points out that “Historically， women had no real power in the outside world， no place in decision-making and intellectual life. Today， however ecology speaks for the earth， for the “other” in human and environmental relationships， and the feminism speaks for the “other” in female and male relationships. And ecofeminism， by speaking for both the original others， seeks to understand the interconnected roots of all domination as well as ways to resist and change. The ecofeminisms task is one of developing the ability to take the place of the other when considering the consequences of possible actions， and ensuring that we do not forget that we are all part of one another.”

四、Conclusion

Although this novel， the Grain of the Wheat was seen as a typical post-colonial text in the literary area，in which the western world conquered the colonial land and created many unequal elements after their invasion. Ngugiwa Thiongo showed the unequal elements after the colonial conquering to the readers for requesting the equal state and the harmony life in the novel， which shared the same objectives as the ecology. Women should be respected as well as the nature， and they are as beautiful as the nature which is described vividly in the novel.Thus，this paper aims at creating a harmonious relation between men and nature， men and women to deconstruct the human-oriented centralism.

References：

[1]Ardins， A （1985） New woman， New novel New York： Oxford University Press.

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