Wandering into the Wilderness of Womanhood: An Ecofeminist Reading of the Relationship between Women and Nature in Margaret Atwood's Surfacing and Cheryl Strayed's Wild.

dc.contributor.advisorRoza, M.H.
dc.contributor.advisorGageldonk, M. van
dc.contributor.authorLourens, J.H.A.J.J.
dc.date.issued2016-08-15
dc.description.abstractThis thesis explores the relationship between women and nature in contemporary North American literature. This relationship has been researched in the novel Surfacing (1972) by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and in the memoir Wild (2012) by American author Cheryl Strayed. This thesis researches these two literary works by Atwood and Strayed in the light of ecofeminism: a theory that links women to nature. Both women and nature suffer from the dominant influences of a male-oriented society. Both women have written about female experiences with nature either from a fiction or non-fiction point of view. Margaret Atwood’s novel Surfacing can be seen as a prototypical ecofeminist work whereas Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild is not necessarily an ecofeminist work at all. This thesis looks at the differences in depicting a woman’s relationship to nature between an ecofeminist work and a non-typical ecofeminist work. The relationship between women and nature is much deeper and more spiritual in an ecofeminist work than it is in a non-typical ecofeminist work. Wild depicts the relationship between the female lead character and nature as a bonding experience whereas Surfacing depicts the relationship between nature and the female protagonist as a necessity to survive in a patriarchic society. Keywords: Women, Nature, Transcendentalism, Ecofeminism, Ecocriticism, Margaret, Atwood, Surfacing, Cheryl, Strayed, Wilden_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://theses.ubn.ru.nl/handle/123456789/3699
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.thesis.facultyFaculteit der Letterenen_US
dc.thesis.specialisationAmerikanistieken_US
dc.thesis.studyprogrammeBachelor Engelse taal en cultuuren_US
dc.thesis.typeBacheloren_US
dc.titleWandering into the Wilderness of Womanhood: An Ecofeminist Reading of the Relationship between Women and Nature in Margaret Atwood's Surfacing and Cheryl Strayed's Wild.en_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Lourens, Janneke 4151534.pdf
Size:
467.95 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format