An ecofeminist approach to Atwood’s surfacing, lessing’s the cleft and winterson’s The Stone Gods

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Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Middle East Technical University, Turkey

Approval Date: 2008

Thesis Language: English

Student: Funda Bilgen

Supervisor: MARGARET JEANNE M. SÖNMEZ

Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection

Abstract:

This thesis analyzes the analogy between woman and nature and ecofeminist theory that emphasizes the parallelism between man's exploitation of woman and nature. It aims to make an ecofeminist analysis of three novels: Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, The Cleft by Doris Lessing and The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson. First, this thesis introduces the history and main principles of ecofeminist theory. These novels by different women writers investigate the embodiment of these main principles in three novels despite the fact that the same aspects of the theory can sometimes be interpreted differently in these novels. In analyzing these three novels as applications and/or the criticisms of ecofeminist theory, it was found that two theories, social ecology and Cyborg Theory, are also necessary. The later novels use ideas from these related theories alongside ecofeminist ideas. In order to undertake this analysis in each novel, this thesis also studies the assignment of determined social roles to man and woman and the duality resulting from this inequality. Next, it investigates the colonization of both nature and woman's body by man’s intervention, that leads to the alienation of woman from herself and society. Furthermore, this thesis shows the exploitation process of females and nature by males who consider both as objects.