What is "ecology" and how is "literature"?
www.toutiao.com 2024-06-05 03:59
Shen Nian's "News from the Great Lake" and other works reproduce the past and new appearance of Dongting Lake. The picture shows an illustration of the expanse of Dongting Lake. Profile picture
Ah Lai's "Shadow on the River" tells the story of the small people in the village who are dependent on each other. Pictured is an illustration in the book. Profile picture
【Trends and Trends of Ecological Literature Creation】
Ecological literature is a genre of literature with an interdisciplinary nature
The so-called "ecology" refers to the state of survival and development of organisms in a certain natural environment, including the state of interaction between organisms and between them and the environment. As a kind of living organism, human beings are also a specific ecology and form an interlocking relationship with various natural environments. With the popularization of Enlightenment thought, especially the progress of science and technology, human beings have gradually realized that as creatures with subjective consciousness, human beings have the reason and ability to continuously improve their own living conditions, thus forming ecological consciousness. Under the guidance of this awareness, not only ecology was created, but also ecology was continuously integrated into the field of humanities and social sciences, and ecological ethics, ecological economics, ecological anthropology, ecological culture, etc., including ecological literature, emerged. Therefore, from the perspective of conceptual evolution, ecological literature is not a literature classified by theme, but a literary genre with an interdisciplinary nature, which is internally supported by human ecological consciousness.
Recognizing the special nature of ecological literature, when we discuss ecological literature, we will not simply regard ecological literature as "nature literature" or "environmental literature", nor will we stand on the anthropocentric standpoint and regard the natural environment as an object that can be conquered or transformed at will, but will be based on the holistic, systematic and comprehensive nature of ecology, and explore the stable, harmonious and sustainable development relationship between man and nature.
Therefore, I agree with Professor Wang Nuo's definition: "Ecological literature is based on ecological holism and takes the overall interests of the ecosystem as the highest value, examines and expresses the relationship between nature and man, explores the social roots of the ecological crisis, and engages in and expresses unique ecological aesthetics." Ecological responsibility, cultural criticism, ecological ideals, ecological early warning and ecological aesthetics are its prominent features. This definition highlights the core value standards of ecological literature, as well as its main aesthetic characteristics, and emphasizes that ecological consciousness is its intrinsic subjectivity.
Ecological literature is a historical product of social development in China
In the field of contemporary Chinese literature, although we can learn from "The Love of the Wild Goose" and "Woodcutter, Wake Up!" In early works such as "The Buck with Seven Forked Horns", we can see some contemporary writers who pay attention to ecological issues, but if we look at the ecological consciousness of the writer's subject, the real emergence of ecological literature is after the mid-90s of the 20th century. In particular, the rapid development of the market economy has caused many ecological problems and prompted people to consciously reflect on the blind pursuit of their own interests. This kind of reflection not only touches on the integrity of the ecosystem and questions the value of the supremacy of human interests, but also incorporates ecological issues into the self-critical consciousness of human social and cultural ethics, demonstrating the clearer ecological consciousness of contemporary writers. Therefore, ecological literature in China is a historical product of social development, which does not originate from the demand for change within literature, but from people's critical cognition of their own state of existence, including people's constructive thinking about the concept of modern civilization.
On the whole, after more than 20 years of creative practice, contemporary Chinese ecological literature has begun to take shape, and some relatively important works have appeared in the fields of novels, essays, and non-fiction writing, such as Jiang Rong's "Wolf Totem", Chi Zijian's "The Right Bank of the Ergun River", "The Courage of Migratory Birds", A Lai's "Three Cordyceps", "Mushroom Circle", "Cypress Shadow on the River", Shen Nian's "News from the Great Lake", and Li Juan's "Sheep Road Series". However, these works are still limited to writing about the internal conflict between man and nature, reflecting on the excessive pursuit of self-interest by human beings, and destroying the balanced relationship between man and nature. As for the scientific forms of interaction within the ecology, especially the various wisdom and mysteries of biological existence, they have not been vividly and exquisitely presented. This also shows that the ecological consciousness of contemporary writers is still only at the level of phenomenon understanding, and has not been able to go deep into the necessary scientific fields to form fruitful thinking on the systemic problems of mutual influence and interaction within ecology. It should be said that from the concept of the creative subject to the specific creative practice and theoretical criticism, contemporary Chinese ecological literature has not yet formed a relatively mature aesthetic form, nor has it formed a more systematic evaluation system.
In this regard, the most prominent manifestation is that the vast majority of his works are written about the ecological crisis. In other words, the reduction of ecological literature into a kind of environmental literature, especially some reportage about the water crisis, food crisis, land and air pollution, etc., although it also explores the social, economic, and cultural issues behind the crisis, the main intention of the writer is to focus on the problem of human existence, and in his bones he still defends anthropocentrism, pursues human survival as the highest value standard, and ignores the intersubjectivity between man and nature.
The quality of ecological literature depends on the writer's in-depth thinking and aesthetic expression
In order to effectively promote the development of Chinese ecological literature from the perspective of ecological civilization, it is necessary to focus on the main body and creative practice of writers, and focus on solving several fundamental problems.
First of all, writers need to be conscious and sound about ecology. This kind of ecological consciousness not only contains the writer's scientific understanding and cognition of ecological issues, but also the writer's modern thinking on "literature is anthropology". Ecological issues, in the final analysis, are an important field of natural science discussion, which mainly explores the complex relationship between organisms and their surroundings, and has its own relatively complete research objects, goals and tasks. Writers may not be ecologists, but they should have an understanding of the intrinsic attributes, research ideas and cutting-edge achievements of ecological science. If you do not care about or understand the basic knowledge of ecology and its important research trends, it is difficult to cultivate ecological consciousness with a scientific spirit based on your own imagination. In other words, only by deeply understanding and grasping some necessary basic knowledge of ecology and being familiar with the special significance of ecological research for the development of human society can writers better establish the theoretical vision and cultural stance of the ecological problem of literary writing, and can they also grasp the modern connotation of "literature is anthropology" at the holistic and systematic level of biology, truly incorporate "anthropology" into the scientific context of "ecology", and reconstruct the life connotation of "anthropology". Scientific ecological consciousness is certainly not a simple and crude opposition to anthropocentrism, nor a casual denial of the value concept of the supremacy of human interests, but takes the overall interests of the ecosystem as its purpose, and conveys the writer's forward-looking thinking on the relationship between the existence of modern human beings and their environment in an interactive and interactive construction of self and other. However, due to the gap and barriers between the liberal arts and sciences, as well as the traditional concept of life, contemporary Chinese writers' understanding of ecology is still relatively simple, and it is difficult to say that their ecological consciousness has reached self-consciousness and soundness.
Second, writers need to scientifically grasp the complex and delicate relationships within the ecology. Ecological problems, in short, are the relationship between living organisms and the environment in which they live and develop. This relationship involves not only the roles and status of each other, but also the cultural ethics of human beings. Theoretically, we can easily propose that the relationship problem written in ecological literature is not the subject-object relationship with human beings as the subject, but the intersubjective relationship between different organisms. Because in the cognitive field of ecology, the relationship between the natural environment and human beings should be an intersubjective relationship, rather than human objectifying or othering the natural environment. The textures of their interactions are rich and varied, subtle and complex, and together they maintain the vitality of this world. However, in the specific practice of creation, it is not easy for writers to truly establish an intersubjective stance on life, values and their expressions, and to respect and protect nature. The greatness, wonder, and even possession of certain "divine" powers of nature are not uncommon in writers' writings. The destruction of the natural environment and the various punishments suffered by human beings are also constantly appearing in many works. However, whether it is human beings or other creatures, when they seek their own survival and development, when they form irreconcilable conflicts with their surroundings, how to present the complex interaction between subjects from the standpoint of intersubjectivity, and based on the community of biological destiny, give them an ethical humanistic perspective, this is where the difficulty lies. "All relationships are ethics", and by extension, "all ethics are guidelines". Behind any cultural ethic is a code of conduct that gives people the code of conduct to write about conflicts and reveal relationships. Ecological literature needs to reflect the two-way flow between subjects, and it is the activation and manifestation of the writer's inner subjectivity of the natural environment.
Again, the writer needs a deep modern reflection on the various ecological crises. Wang Nuo believes that an important feature of ecological literature is that it is committed to "exploring the deep roots of the tension, alienation, antagonism, and conflict between man and nature, that is, the social roots of the ideology, culture, economy, science and technology, lifestyle, and social development model that cause human beings to conquer and plunder nature." Since the Enlightenment, human beings, as the masters of nature, have always been committed to conquering and transforming nature, and have destroyed nature in the application of many technologies, causing endless ecological crises, from the terrible nuclear pollution to the rising global carbon emissions, from the large-scale use of pesticides to the large-scale excavation of minerals, from the massive deforestation to the large-scale pollution of water, soil and air, which has long attracted widespread attention. Chinese writers are enthusiastic about creating in this area, especially in the field of non-fiction writing. In the face of various ecological crises, writers often present the consequences of various ecological crises through fieldwork, expert interviews, and data analysis, and strive to reveal the causes. However, many works are only satisfied with technical analysis, lacking in-depth discussions on ideology, culture, lifestyle, and even social development models, and even lacking an ethical thinking of intersubjectivity.
The stability, balance and sustainability of ecosystems, and the harmonious development between living organisms and the natural environment, have always been a relative concept, or the ideal state preset by human beings. As long as there are different organisms on the earth, and as long as each organism pursues its own survival and development, various ecological problems will inevitably arise and even face various ecological crises. Therefore, ecological crisis, in essence, is a crisis encountered by various organisms, including human beings, in their survival and development, and is the result of the destruction, blockage or external intervention of the whole, systematic and comprehensive ecosystem. In this regard, of course, human beings have the primary responsibility. This is the inherent paradox of human technological development and the dilemma of human social development. How to explore the relatively stable, healthy and harmonious coexistence between different organisms from the perspective of various ecological crises and from the perspective of a community with a shared future for different organisms in China's ecological literature is the focus of creation and the mission of building China's ecological civilization. The problem now is that whether it is the ecological crisis in realistic writing or the ecological disaster in science fiction literature, we have seen too many anxious expressions about ecology, and more discussion and practice on building a community with a shared future for living beings are urgently needed.
Finally, the work needs to present the aesthetic value of literature. After all, ecological literature is a kind of literature, and it should show the unique aesthetic taste of literature, such as vividness, feeling, and imagination, so as to distinguish it from other humanities sciences such as ecological culture, ecological anthropology, and ecological ethics. Literature is the product of the subject, the result of the close emotional resonance between the writer and the object of expression. Due to the injection of ecological consciousness in ecological literature, the intervention of ideas may be more prominent than other literary creations, which requires the integration of reason and reason. We have read a lot of "big ecological literature" with a broad vision, rich emotions, and serious expressions, but we rarely see ecological writing centered on daily life. Truly excellent ecological literature should be moisturizing things silently, awakening people's ecological consciousness through the aesthetic expression of daily life, calling on people to change some bad lifestyles, change some survival concepts that endanger ecology, and consciously improve the relationship between man and nature. At the same time, ecological literature is also inseparable from delicate and rich imagination. If a writer can base himself on intersubjectivity and regard all things in nature as a kind of life, then his works may truly activate the subject of nature, and at the same time liberate the writer's imagination, and show the meaningful isomorphic relationship between man and nature or between different creatures and nature. Of course, ecological literature should not give up the poetic construction of ecological ideals, and on the basis of inheriting our ancient philosophy of "Taoism and Nature" and "Harmony of Heaven and Man", it can fully interpret the rich connotation of modern ecological civilization and its due life situation.
In short, the development of Chinese ecological literature is still in its initial stage, and there are still many challenges, including the over-prominence of writers' conceptual expressions, the weak aesthetic value of works, and the entanglement of traditional ethical concepts. It involves not only the modern transformation of people's concept of survival, but also the modern construction of human social civilization. Nowadays, Chinese writers should consciously undertake the mission of thriving ecological literary creation, and devote themselves to awakening people's attention to ecological issues through their works, and promoting the concept of green development to infiltrate life and penetrate into the hearts of the people.
(Author: Hong Zhigang, professor of the School of Humanities, Hangzhou Normal University, director of the Institute of Literary Criticism)