Abstract
摘要:本計畫研究當代烏托邦文學處理生態議題的多元面向。第一年擬探討三本七0年代攸關生態議題的烏托邦小說──1975年克倫巴(Ernest Callenbach)的《生態烏托邦》(Ecotopia),1976年皮兒西(Marge Piercy)的《時間邊際的女子》(Woman on the Edge of Time),以及1979年吉兒哈特(Sally Miller Gearhart)的《流浪地》(The Wanderground),以剖析生態烏托邦的關懷、策略、與盲點,並比較三本作品間立場和觀點的歧異。第二年則擬探究勒瑰恩(Ursula K. Le Guin)的二本作品──1974年的《一無所有者》(The Dispossessed)與2003年的短篇小說集《轉機》(Changing Planes),以呈現勒瑰恩的生態想像,並觀察當代生態烏托邦由七0年代至21世紀初的發展。
七0年代的烏托邦呈現對於生態議題的多元思考。克倫巴的《生態烏托邦》為白種/中產階級男性生態運動的縮影,探究層面廣泛,舉凡社會架構/城鄉發展/政治組織/工業/科技/醫藥等議題皆有涉獵。皮兒西的《時間邊際的女子》以及吉兒
Abstract: This two-year project attempts to explore ecological themes prevalent in many contemporary utopian texts. The first-year project is a study of three ecological utopias in the 1970s with an aim to uncovering their common concern and divergence, the strategies adopted, and possible blind spots. Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia (1975), Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time (1976), and Sally Miller Gearhart’s The Wanderground (1979) are the three texts under scrutiny. The second-year project, a study of Ursula K. Le Guin’s two works, The Dispossessed (1974) and Changing Planes (2003), investigates Le Guin’s changing perspective on ecological issues as a way to explore the development of ecological utopias from the 1970s to the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Ecological utopias in the 1970s are variegated. Callenbach’s Ecotopia articulates the 1970s environmental concern as filtered through the lens of a white middle-class patriarchy. Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time and Gearhart’s The Wanderground, on the other hand, pinpoint the interconnection of ecology and feminism, and bring into perspective the dual oppression of women and nature. Gearhart’s The Wanderground argues eloquently for an alternative construction of women’s space that subverts patriarchal designation of women and envisions intimate relationship between women and nature. Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time also articulates ecofeminist vision in its depiction of an alternative society that is free from gender stereotyping and attentive to environmental issues. Piercy’s work is simultaneously a covert comment on the essentialist trend in some ecofeminist philosophy: biological essentialism that envisions a narrow, biological linkage between women and nature and celebration of “women” at t he expense of their intrinsic differences in terms of race and class. The egalitarian vision of a society of both men and women of diverse origin offered by Woman on the Edge of Time destabilizes woman/nature dualism, problematizes the celebration of “woman” per se, and provides a more viable picture than that offered by either Gearhart or Callenbach.
Le Guin’s changing perspectives on ecological issues as evinced in her The Dispossessed and Changing Planes provide a vantage point from which to observe the development of ecological utopias from the 1970s to the beginning of the twenty-first century. While the 1970s ecological utopias tend to demarcate a paradisiacal world sufficient unto itself, the more recent works often entertain a global perspective and are much concerned about the adverse impact transnational corporate power and technological tycoons may have on humans and the earth itself. The 1970s ecological utopias evince the spirit of optimism and hope in the depiction of harmonious relationship among humans/nature/technology. Conversely, in the twenty-first century, as may be witnessed in diverse short stories collected in Changing Planes, resignation and even despair are behind t
Keyword(s)
烏托邦
生態論述
utopia
ecological discourse