A Feminist Perspective of Atwoods Surfacing Essay -- Feminism Feminis

A Feminist Perspective of Surfacing oft referred to as a feminist / ecological treatise by critics, Margaret Atwoods Surfacing reflects the governing and issues of the postmodernist society (Hutcheon 145). The narrator of the story (who remains nameless) returns to the undeveloped island that she grew up on to search for her missing father in the process, she unmasks the dualities and inconsistencies in two her personal life and her patriarchal society. Through the struggle to reclaim her identity element and roots, the Surfacer begins a psychological voyage that leads her directly into the natural world. Like the journey itself, the language, events, and characters in Atwoods novel reflect a world that oppresses and dominates both muliebrity and nature. Strong and unmistakable in Surfacing, the ecofeminist theory establishes itself in three limited ways through the references to patriarchal reasoned dualities between the masculine and fair(prenominal) world through the domination and oppression of the feminine and natural world, and through the Surfacers own internal struggle and re-embracement of nature. Since the voices of ecofeminism are diverse, it requires definition (Zabinski 315). A postmodern movement that abandons the hardheaded scientific approach . . . in favor of a more spiritual consciousness, ecofeminist theory links the oppression of women with the oppression of nature (Salleh 339). More specifically, ecological feminism is the position that there are authoritative connections -- historical, experiential, symbolic, theoretical -- between the domination of women and the domination of nature, an understanding which is crucial to both feminism and environmental ethics (Warren, The Power and the P... ... Ecology. Healing the Wounds The Promise of Ecofeminism. Ed. Judith Plant. Philedelphia late Society Publishers, 1989 18-28. Legleer, Gretchen T. Ecofeminism Literary Criticism. Warren, Ecofeminism 227-238. Salleh, Ariel. Deeper than D eep Ecology The Eco-feminist Connection. Environmental Ethics. Vol.6. 339-345. Warren, Karen, ed. Ecofeminism Women, Culture, and Nature. Bloomington Indiana UP, 1997. ---. pickings Empirical Data Seriously An Ecofeminist Philosophical Perspective. Warren, Ecofeminism 3-20. ---. The Power and the Promise of ecological Feminism. Environmental Ethics 125-146. Zabinski, Catherine. Scientific Ecology and the Ecological Feminism The say-so for Dialougue. Warren, Ecofeminism 314-322. Zimmerman, Michael. Feminism, Deep Ecology, and Environmental Ethics. Environmental Ethics. Vol. 9, 22-44.