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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION HOANG LE ANH LY “NATURE” AND “WOMEN” IN VIETNAMESE WOMEN'S CONTEMPORARY PROSE FROM ECOFEMINIST PERSPECTIVE Major: Vietnamese literature Code: 62 22 01 21 THESIS’ SUMMARY OF VIETNAM’S LANGUAGE AND CULTURE Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2022 This thesis is completed at Ho Chi Minh city University of Education Supervisors: Associate Dr Nguyen Thanh Thi (name, position, and degree) Reviewer 1: Associate Dr Bui Thanh Truyen Reviewer 2: Associate Dr Tran Hoai Anh Reviewer 3: Associate Dr Tran Thi Phương Phương This thesis is defensed at the University’s Evaluation-Thesis Committee: ……………………………………………………………………………… at …………hour……… Date ……… Month ……… year ……… This thesis can be collected at: - National Library of Vietnam - Library of Ho Chi Minh city University of Education - General Sciences Library of Hochiminh City INTRODUCTION The necessity of this research Applying the theory of ecological feminism is a significant and meaningful way to research Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose Writers and criticists start to understand and follow popular literary trends in the global context That studying women’s ecofeminist literary criticism will therefore provide more theories of literary criticism to help writers and poets to have more experience, improve their skills and professional abilities and beyond that to promote the development of Philology from ecofeminist perspective From social viewpoint, that researching literary criticism will create remarkable points to promote global societies to aware and understand deeply the interaction between ecology’s damage and gender discrimination; and then build harmonizing and equal treatments towards both ecology and women Beyond that, this creates a harmonious and promissing society between human – nature – men – women; and a liberation of artistic ideology of female subject in contemporary prose Aiming to investigate the characteristic, similarity between “nature” and “women” in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose; to present men-central ideology and its inequality and prejudice, and unnatural behaviors towards both nature and women, I choose the research titled “Nature and women in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose from ecofeminist perspective” as a thesis’s research This research is expected to promote society’s attention to global and urgent news, and to fill the gap of researching ecofeminist literary criticism in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose Researching aims This study discovers and applies theory of ecological feminism to investigate the parallel and similarity of both emblems of nature and women in beauty, healthy, and defense in Vietnamese women’s contemporary proses From then, this research argues the role and position of nature and women in artistic consciousness and female subjects’ viewpoint in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose Moreover, via narrating feminine discourse of contemporary Vietnamese female writers, we research their harmonizing styles and ways to create discourse to partly improve society’s awareness about gender equality and human’s treatment towards natural environment and women Research’s objects In this thesis, term of Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose is used to show the fact of female writers’ scholarships from the period 1980s to present in comparing with general Vietnamese prose in recent years However, its meaning is quite relative as the conception is still developing and changing in around 40 years and Vietnamese women’s prose is still influenced by many external and internal factors As the previous clarification, the research’s object in this thesis are nature and women in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose under the ecofeminist perspective In detail, this research focuses on showing evidence of ecofeminism via artistic consciousness, and viewpoint of female subject (women writers), and ways of autobiography in Vietnamese women’s prose All investigating objects (writers and scholarships) are presented detail in Appendix Research’s scope Researching scope is all contemporary proses of Vietnamese female writers, in which mostly are on short-story and novel Basically, all issues of ecofeminism have presented deeply in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose from the early 21st century, and this research pays attention to investigate all the scholarships published in this period (Appendix 1) Researching methods The thesis is completed by applying the theory of ecological feminism, and the bellow methodologies: – Historical and social methods to discover origins and developing process and evidence of ecological feminism in Vietnamese women’s prose – Structuring method to clarify all fundamental characteristic of different, and even contradict theories about ecological feminism and ecofeminist literary criticism – Comparative method to compare Literature between different periods, between different nations, and between male writers and female ones in order to discover how social situation, cultural background, historical factor affected female writers and their scholarships under the perspective of ecofeminism Besides, this research also applies systematic method to find general characteristic, similarity of all evidence of ecofeminist prose, and then generalize all criteria and specific characteristic and effect of this literary branch – Method of archetypal criticism to discover and analyze all natural archetype-emblem to present long-lasting, universal meanings original from national culture, religion, and history Moreover, we apply interdisciplinary approaches to clarify similar theories systematically to explain different perspectives of ecofeminism Other supplemental skills are applied in this research such as: skills of collecting and analyzing to examine and evaluate all similar figures of female and natural conditions in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose and to show typical evidence of general discourse about ecofeminism Statistical skill to collect important emblems, pictures, artistic evidence in Vietnamese female writers’ scholarships to present precisely ecofeminism in each prose Research’s meanings – In theory: from 1986, Vietnam has joined in the globalization, and Vietnamese Literature has connected, interacted, imported and chosen new, humanity criticism theories of poetic, autobiography, post-modern, post-colony, feminism, ecologism However, ecofeminist literary criticism still lacks of research in Vietnam This thesis, therefore partly systematizes all theories relating to ecofeminism such as its origins, characteristic, and influences to literary discourse in Vietnam – In practice: by applying theory of ecofeminist literary criticism, we try to explain noticeable characteristic of Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose: + The similarity between women and nature in both beauty, vitality, and their position in Vietnam women’s contemporary prose + Creating new opinions about nature, the relation between nature and women in deconstructing anthropocentrism to establish new standard of morality in people’s treatment towards nature, and men’s response towards women + Clarifying and confirming an important role of artistic texts towards human’s awareness about their destruction towards ecology, the situation of gender inequality, and beyond that, the maintenance and development of future humankind Thesis’ structure Besides Introduction, Conclusion, References, Appendix, this thesis has four main chapters Chapter Ecofeminism and previous studies about Ecological Feminism in Vietnamese Women’s contemporary Prose Chapter Issues of Feminism and Ecology in Vietnamese Women’s Prose: A Historical Perspective Chapter Nature and Women via Art’s Ideology and Women perspective in Vietnamese Women’s contemporary Prose Chapter Nature and Women via Narration Method of Vietnamese Women’s contemporary Prose CHAPTER ECOFEMINISM AND PREVIOUS STUDIES ABOUT ECOLOGICAL FEMINISM IN VIETNAMESE WOMEN’S CONTEMPORARY PROSE 1.1 Ecological feminism and potential of ecofeminist literacy criticism in studying Literature 1.1.1 Conceptions of feminism and ecofeminism Ecofeminism, or ecological feminism is the combination between feminism and ecology Ecology studies the independence and connection of all livings in the world Feminism is original as a political-social movement to require educational equality for women As such ecological feminism examines the connection between women and nature It can also be a value-system, a social movement, an awareness and practice of that considering nature and the connection between nature and women as foundation for further analysis and meaning 1.1.2 Sub-branches of ecofeminism Spiritual Ecofeminism/Cultural Ecofeminism It is a main branch of ecofeminism with popular writers such as: Starhawk, Riane Eisler Carol J Adams Cultural ecofeminists argue that women have a more intimate relation with nature than men’s connection The linkage between women and ecology is explained clearly by gender role (as women as family nurturer, and provider of supplies for all members) and their biological characteristics (menstruation, pregnancy, and lactation) Cultural ecofeminists believe that such associations allow women to be more sensitive to the sanctity and degradation of the environment They consider that this sensitivity out to be prized by society insofar as it establishes a more direct connection to nature with which humans must coexist Social ecofeminism Social ecofeminism has opposite opinion with cultural ecofeminism Social ecofeminists claim that there is no essential (biological natural, innate) nature of women (contra cultural ecofeminism’s essentialism), no homogenous women experience or women way of knowing (contra cultural ecofeminism’s universalism), and no ahistorical concept of women (contra cultural ecofeminism’s ahistoricism) Rather, women’s identities are socially constructed, historically fashioned, and materially reinforced through the interplay of a diversity of race/ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, age, ability, marital status, and geographic factors (social constructivism) Materialist Ecofeminism Materialist ecofeminism is middle ground of ecofeminism Materialist ecofeminists argue that working, power and property are original of control to both nature and women As a result, they try to remove social classes advantageous for producing commodities under men’s control Materialist ecofeminism claims that women-nature connections are both socially constructed and biologically predisposed Women’s biology (bodies, reproductive capacities) has played a key role historically in the oppression of women and the identification of women with nature, but women’s biology is not destiny Rather, it is the social, material, and political relationships between women and nature which are important Radical Ecofeminism Radical ecofeminists contend that the dominant patriarchal society equates nature and women in order to degrade both Radical ecofeminism builds on the assertion of early ecofeminists that one must study patriarchal domination with an eye toward ending the associations between women and nature They also focus more on women’s reproductive function, especially on the relationship, culture This theory exploits the term “household head” to explain all women’s issues and patriarchal model as the most important theorical tool to analyze ecofeminism Radical ecofeminists argue that human is not central, but only a factor of all larger community including nature, animals, plants, ecology, planets and those factors have similar rights to develop 1.1.3 Characteristic of ecofeminism 1.1.3.1 A connection between nature and women Connections of different types of domination That oppressing women and exploiting nature has similar logic of domination If natural domination mentions natural world’s unfair independence on humans, the female domination means women’s unreasonable independence on men At level of conception, ideology of ranking values and dualism have created the high development of culture in comparing with nature, of human in comparing with animals, and of men in comparing with women Ecofeminists determined that solving the predicament of either constituency would require undoing the social status of both nature and women Rather than a movement and an issue, that liberation of all oppressive groups have to complete together Experimental Connections It means that the connection between women and nature can be presented via experimental evidence It is the most practical and lively connection about the integration of both exploiting of environment and oppressing women Ecofeminists provide detail evidence to show that natural domination, especially environmental destruction has more largely affected to women and their relating than to men Symbolic Connections This type of connection between women and nature can be seen in arts, theology, religion, and Philology popularly For example, ecofeminist theology considers Gaia as Goodness and provide an opinion about “Gaianism” As a result, discovering symbolic connections and the loss of women and nature in religion, theology, arts and philology is a compulsory part of total ecofeminism to declare the liberation, and the linkage between real living and spirituality Historical Connections In Western history, some periods are original and fundamental factors to create a connection between domination on both nature and women Ecofeminists provide some evidence and events to show a logical order such as the Industrial Revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries; or the Greek classical Philosophy, the establishment of rationalism and dualism Political Connections Both feminism and ecology are political and social movements to require an equality This political movement was promoted by human’s interest in urgent and important issues of healthy, women, environment, scientific development, technology, world peace, anti-nuclear, anti-dictator Ecofeminists’ opinions about environment are serious attempts to practice their political concerns and aims Feminine Connections The connection between nature and women in ecofeminism is quite complex although in historical perspective, both of them witnessed domination While social ecofeminists argue that the connection between women and nature is completely a result of the process of building society, spiritual ecofeminists argue that this connection is deeper than the similarity of domination It means that it is not necessary to view this connection from historical and social perspectives, but women-nature connection has its own characteristic namely unconscious connection, or naturalizing women and feminization of nature 1.1.3.2 Characteristic of deconstruction Deconstruct dualism Ecofeminists argue that the division of world under dualism is a reason for all domination Human always respect higher level in the comparison between reason and instinct, human and animal, men and women As a result, human is central in comparing with natural world, and women are always lower rank than men This logical order causes men’s domination over both nature and women In order to deconstruct dualism, ecofeminists create a new discourse about position of people in comparing with nature, men’s role in comparing with women to provide a new understanding about people’s alienation, domination, and to highlight nature’s free, pure and generosity Deconstruct anthropocentrism Ecofeminists recognize serious problems in the concept of humancentrism and androcentrism (a small branch of humancentrism) They are reasons for gender inequality and environment damage Val Plumwood argues that both human-centrism and androcentrism create illusions on their standpoint and belief As a result, nature’s role is low, unusual, unrespectful, and disorder They also create new script for the relation between women and men In fact, men or women always have dissimilar things and both of them not follow any origin assigned for their gender blindly People can destroy and go through this gender-barrier Accordingly, ecofeminists propose to deconstruct humancentrism deeply and completely to reduce damage and hurt of both nature and women 1.1.4 Potential of ecofeminist literary criticism in studying Philology 1.1.4.1 Ecofeminist criticism Ecofeminist criticism is a combination between ecological criticism and feminist criticism to propose solutions relating to issues of ecological problems and gender inequality It applies a multi-viewpoint of nature, environment and gender to criticize Philology; and also combines those factors to create an internal power to deconstruct dualism, to disagree humancentriism and patriarchal (male-center) culture to liberate the role of periphery and distant subject of both nature and women, to awake people’s consciousness of ecology and gender equality, to build an equal, harmonious society between gender, animal, between human and natural world It means a prosperous world with cultural and biological diversity 1.1.4.2 Characteristic of ecofeminist criticism in studying Philology Ecofeminist criticism combined previous theories of multi-disciplines with specific researching methods and targets to create their identifications: – Clarifying the relation between women and nature, clarifying ways to establish and develop this relation in Philology; – Criticizing forms of dividing classes and domination; – Exploiting inter-viewpoint of both ecology and feminism to research Philology; Impressing the urgency of that transforming ideology in the context of environmentdamage and gender inequality because social and ideological systems are original for both issues of nature and women – Clarifying ecofeminism with multi-connection 1.1.4.3 The possibility to apply ecofeminist criticism in researching Philology Recently, both issues of protecting environment and liberating women’s rights are becoming serious and urgent As a result, ecofeminist criticism partly contributes to affect people’ consciousness and adaptation of opinions, response towards both natural world and women This theory is becoming a popular trend in writing Philology as it can combine the protection of environment with development of feminism Beyond that, this theory also contributes to develop Vietnamese writers’ theory and literary criticism in order to improve their professional skills 1.2 Literature Review of studying Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose under ecofeminism 1.2.1 Regarding theories importing In 1996, translators Nguyen Trong Dinh, Doan Ngoc Thanh translated “The second sex” of the French writer Simone de Beauvoir It is the most important book of all ecofeminist criticism This book provides not only theory for literary criticism but also relations and similarity between nature and women This theory partly explains the interaction between women and nature for later ecofeminism In 2008, Trinh Y Thu translated Virginia Woolf’s book namely “A room of one’s own” This book is a collection of Woolf’s lectures about female writers and literary occupation This book not only describes the situation of female writers in the patriarchal model but also tries to re-identify their role in leading issues In 2011, Lê Hong Sam translated a book namely “La Domination masculine” of Pierre Bourdieu which partly contributes to create a revolution in human’s consciousness about world logical order In 2013, Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuan published a translation of “Text, theory, Methods” edited by Tess Cosslett, Celia Lury & Penny Summer Field This book introduces central issues of feminism In this book, autobiography is considered as a method, a type, and an action In 2015, Nguyen Van Ha translated Betty Friedan books of “The Feminine Mystique” to provide more information about re-describe, re-locate role and position of women in order to deconstruct their shape Ecofeminist criticism in Vietnam has transformed gradually as several types and perspectives of this theory has translated and introduced in Vietnam although the above works are completed individually and unconsciously In 2006, Nguyen Ngoc translated Jacques Dournes’ book of “Forest, Woman, Madness” In this book, Jacques Dournes explains that Gia-rai people live in matriarchal model as they have a close connection with natural environment, and because women have both natural inside origin and external factors during their development and domination over nature This book explains the relation between women and nature from social perspective, ethnicity and partly contribute to support ecofeminism In 2011, in a lecture at Vietnam Institute of Literature about Ecocriticism, Karen Thornber from Harvard University introduced generally contents, meaning and developing process of researching environment’s prose She not only provides basic terms of ecofeminist criticism but also evaluates the potential of women in the ecological revolution In 2014, Tran Thi Anh Nguyet translated a part of the collection “The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology” edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm This book can be seen as introducing material in module of ecofeminist criticism as it provides general and precise value about theory of ecofeminism This book also raises questions about conception of ecofeminist criticism relating to both women and nature In 2016, Tran Manh Tien translated chapters of Vien Linh Hong’s book namely “Researching type of morality of ecofeminism” as a support for theory about feminism in Vietnam Those chapters focus on leading topic that “ecofeminism trends to liberate morality”, meaning ecofeminism’s key ideology is to criticize humancentrism-based morality It also proposes ways to reconcile with nature by analyzing the comprehension of society, and presenting advantageous characteristic of ecofeminism As such, in this translation, Tran Tien Manh provides ecofeminism’s characteristic, origin and philosophy systematically In 2017, Hoang To Mai edited a book namely “Which is ecofeminist criticism?” This book is a collection of translations and summary of many scholars such as Pham Phuong Chi, Dang Thi Thai Ha, Le Quoc Hieu, Tran Ngoc Hieu, Hoang To Mai, Nguyen Truong Sinh By introducing international experts’ theory, this book provides fundamental knowledge of ecofeminist criticism to help readers to have general background of this researching problem 1.2.2 Regarding practice of ecofeminism In 2016, Pham Ngoc Lan in an article “Coming back to mother nature: Nguyen Ngoc Tu’s Endless field from ecofeminism” mentioned the practice of ecofeminist criticism in Vietnam’s urban philology The author also clarifies the connection between ecologist and feminist criticism and their typical characteristics In 2016, Tran Thi Anh Nguyet, Lê Luu Oanh published a noticeable work about ecofeminist criticism with “Human and nature in Vietnam’s prose after 1975: from ecological perspective” This paper presents systematically the establishment and development of ecologist criticism in the world and Vietnam; and the appearance of feminism is a turning point during the development of ecologism In 2017, Nguyễn Thi Tinh Thy introduced a book namely “Dried Forest, dried Stream, pernicious sea and Philology – Ecofeminist Criticism” It is an important and good book about ecofeminist criticism in Vietnam The author presents key points about ecofeminism in this book and then proposes various methods to criticize Vietnam’s prose under ecofeminism In 2018, the book “Ecofeminism with Southern Vietnam’s prose” edited by Bui Thanh Tuyen analyzed theory of ecofeminism as a branch of ecologism Although discourse of ecofeminism is not completed and immature, it is still a turning point and development in comparing with separate ecologist and feminist criticism 1.2.3 Applying ecofeminist literacy criticism in studying Philology There are many proses, articles and books analyzing literary characteristic under the ecofeminism perspective: In 2016, Pham Ngoc Lan provides unique and creative explanations about ecofeminism in a specific prose namely “Coming back to mother nature: Nguyen Ngoc Tu’s endless field from ecofeminism” It is also presented in the article of Tran Thi Anh Nguyet, Le Luu Oanh in 2016 In 2017, the national conference: “Ecofeminist criticism – Local and global voices” organized by Vietnam Institute of Literature This conference agrees the expansion and influence of ecofeminism in Vietnams’ researchers The conference proceeding with a collection of 84 papers shows the application of ecofeminism in researching prose 11 three obedience and four virtues That is individual’s power, defense to fight against genderprejudice and therefore it shows personal desire of confirm their values Consciousness about female body It means that in contemporary prose, writers focus on describing women’s natural body to show their beauty That is the way to deconstruct men’s art ideology in the previous period Women’s body becomes a notation with feminist arts to fight against long lasting men’s opinions Consciousness about liberation in sexuality Sexuality is not only a self-demand but also a tool to confirm gender equality By understanding and writing this subject, female writers overthrew forbidden things and taboos to liberate women from prejudice and men’s domination to come out and live with their own demands Via investigating sexuality, female writers deeply confirm feminism, their proactive approach in a sensitive object Their bravery helps to confirm their position and role in discourse about sexuality Deconstruct men’s emblem Men’s emblem is considered in various perspectives and therefore it is deconstructed by female writers The term “strong sex” is completely deconstructed in many proses of female writers It means that in those proses, men’s emblem is presented not only strong and brave, but also weak and impotent as they also have no power and ability to address private and social problems 2.2 Ecology in Vietnamese women’s prose: a history perspective 2.2.1 The establishment of ecological ideology in Vietnamese women’s medieval prose The relation between human and nature has mentioned in prose of female writers in the medieval period Famous and intelligent writers such as Ho Xuan Huong, Ba Huyen Thanh Quan, Doan Thi Diem, Ngo Chi Lan, Truong Thi Trong, Nguyen Tinh Hoa played their key role in the development and improvement of Vietnam’s prose in general and of Vietnamese women’s ecological prose in particularly Social position and gender-feature affected heavily their works, especially in topics relating to ecology and nature Female writers therefore partly created a new voice, recognization around human’s treatment towards environment, and the role of nature in human’s emotion and awareness 2.2.2 Ecology in Vietnamese women’s prose from the early 20th century to 1975 Several female writers in the early 20th century were sensitive with changes of environment and presented their status in prose For example, Dam Phuong with “Travel in mountain in the spring”; Huynh Thi Bao Hoa with “A journey to Ba Na hill”; Phan Thi Nga with “Going to Cu Lao Yen”, Nguyen Thi Kiem with “Under the Ca pass” They demonstrated writers’ love towards natural beauty, and also their worry about environment’s risks because of human’s activities which violated ecological rules Poems in the period 1930-1945 also had their evidence of ecology, especially the sorrow with the urbanization Van Dai, Hang Phuong, Anh Tho, Mong Tuyet responded with the urbanization by hiding in nature In their works, village is not only a beautiful place but also their home country with beautiful memories Village becomes a peaceful place for them to come back and avoid social pressures 12 In the period 1945 – 1975, there were many prose mentioning human’s destruction to environment Xuan Quynh, Lam Thi My Da, Y Nhi, Nguyen Thi Hong Ngat, Phan Thi Thanh Nhan, Anh Tho, Viet Anh, Thuy Bac, Cam Lai, Hoang Thi Minh Khanh, Le Thi May mentioned the negative effects of war towards nature as a way to denounce Vietnamese rivalries’ crime and destructions As a result, in their prose, nature is not only Vietnamese proud with beautiful places but also a situation of damaging ecology under the effect of war Natural beauty is simple but it is national incarnation 2.2.3 Ecology in Vietnamese women’s prose after 1975 Ecologism of Vietnam’s prose in general and of Vietnamese women’s prose in particular after 1975 starts with the appearance of post-war literacy By presenting results and effects of war towards nature, female writers focused on ecological topics Then after, this theme was demonstrated deeply in urban literature By reflecting the relation between human and nature, writers raised questions about environment, induvial’ destiny in total ecology and their warning about imbalance in nature after people exploited nature deeply and negatively and unstably 2.3 Trends of combining ecology and feminism 2.3.1 From importing and interacting with Western theory of ecofeminism Vietnam is one of many countries deeply affected by the climate changes, the out of resources, and gender inequality from historical results As a result, when ecofeminist literary criticism was imported in Vietnam in the 1990s, Vietnam’s literature quickly interacted and connected with this sensitive theory After 1986, many writers, researchers, criticists knew and applied new approaches to connect Vietnamese prose with international subjects relating to human’s responsibility for ecological crisis and gender inequality 2.3.2 Origins of women’s characteristic and desire From the internal factor, women’s characteristic and desire deeply influence the combination of ecology and feminism because women are more sensitive with natural issues They are easy to find a way and factor to connect their status with nature; and therefore, in female prose, the connection between domination to environment and control to women is quite clear This combination is avoidable and it presents the development of both ecologism and feminism 2.4 The establishment of discourses about ecofeminism in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose 2.4.1 From “hypothesis” to “discourse” in Literature Ecofeminism is a political - social issue and we apply Foucault’s social approach to research this project Feminist discourse or ecological discourse, ecofeminist discourse can be seen as a presentation way of ideology and history; and they develop together with the improvement of history and society From feminism to the appearance of feminist discourse in literature Problems of feminist literature start from women’s role and position in family and society Traditional opinions such as “the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam” or “one man is important than ten women” are main reasons for lower rank of women in world 13 society As such, as woman tries to identify yourself, re-confirm their identities, that can be seen as a begin, an attempt to clarify feminism The process is noticeable as women recognize their own discourse with the appearance of three waves of feminism to require gender equality in both political, economic, literary and artistic issues In literature, female writers build ways and methods to write and read women’s own literature In which, they find suitable ways for women’s writings, clarify female characteristic to compare with male prose This status points the establishment of feminist discourse From ecology to the appearance of ecological discourse in Literature The key content of ecofeminist criticism is the relation between human, nature and art In this relation, nature is dominated by people in various methods The establishment of ecofeminist discourse is therefore an unavoidable result Changes of ecological environment and social values created an adaptation of discourse By re-evaluating, re-identifying pass and present values, re-locating human’s position via deconstructing dualism, female writers in contemporary prose have created a new environment with high power to affect and change human’s awareness and consciousness in their policy and treatment to nature From ecofeminism to the appearance of ecofeminist discourse in Literature Because the reduction of the quality of living environment and the increase of serious issues of gender inequality, Vietnamese female writers in contemporary prose start to improve their consciousness about ecological and female issues in Literature From the inside essential of women, female writers also view their connection with nature, and gradually establish ecofeminist discourse It can be seen that, all works with feminism have specific identification and figure, as writers link closely environment and their spirituality Ecofeminists call this status as the close connection between environment (both natural and social environments), women and literature In which, art becomes a way to transfer voice and language of ecofeminism Beyond that, Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose try to change human’s treatment towards nature and women 2.4.2 Factors caused the establishment of ecofeminism discourse in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose Changes of historical and social contexts and conditions of culture and ideology can be seen as main factors to create the adaptation of Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose In which ecofeminist discourse is established and developed to struggle for feminism and to protect environment Besides the above reasons, inside factors of female subjects’ consciousness also play an important role for the establishment of ecofeminist discourse (more detail in section 3.1) 2.4.3 Its early results and limitation There are both potential and challenges for ecofeminism in Vietnamese contemporary prose Vietnamese female writers start to create a harmonious discourse as a combination of both female and ecological issues Their texts can provide inspiration and evidence for the establishment of ecofeminist discourse From then, there is a formation and improvement of a new literary branch with characteristic of ecofeminism in order to partly address human’s contemporary crisis by focusing on living harmoniously with nature and sharing new and 14 suitable living values This branch therefore provides more evidence for both literary theory and practice Theories of ecofeminist literary criticism and of ecofeminist literature are blending all criteria of ecology and feminism to deal with global risks in order to create natural and social balances However, while international ecofeminist discourse has completed with literary methods and fundamental theories, this branch in Vietnamese literature is still at beginning level, and all works mostly describe the connection and similarity between nature and women; and present authors’ attitude about natural degradation and gender inequality It means that by applying multi-arguing method to discover and analyze ecofeminism in Vietnamese texts, it can create a huge concern about theory of ecological feminism Vietnamese contemporary proses have little text with satisfactory criteria of both ecology and feminism We can only find some noticeable examples with parts of criteria of ecofeminism in Vietnamese contemporary texts Conclusion In brief, issues of ecology and feminism appeared quite early in Vietnamese traditional prose and its maintainance is continuous with different levels and evidences in different periods Contemporary proses develop ecofeminism from traditional foundation of traditional texts As a results, the settlement of ecofeminism in Vietnamese contemporary proses is unavoidable as it is a result of the combination between external and internal factors, traditional and modern factors Besides influence of Western ecofeminism, the appearance of Vietnamese ecofeminism is also under the domination of agricultural civilization and national tradition to worship Goodness Those factors develop and affect Vietnamese proses deeply and promote to the establishment of ecofeminism in advantageous conditions of both society, culture and literature after 1986 CHAPTER NATURE AND WOMEN VIA ART’S IDEOLOGY AND FEMALE PERSPECTIVE IN VIETNAMESE WOMEN’S CONTEMPORARY PROSE 3.1 Artistic consciousness, viewpoint/perspective and female subject 3.1.1 The increase of female subjects’ artistic consciousness With the innovation of 1986, Vietnamese proses changed and developed strongly and obtained high results in Vietnamese literature Women compose prose and poem and they play a role of subject to self-create their gender They are subjects of discourse (female discourse) but not discourse’s objects Rather than evaluating female emblem from men’s perspective, they self-consider their shape in their eyes Their female identity is presented sharply via their attempts to liberate women, settle a consciousness about female beauty, about individual’ personality, and instinctive behavior and demands in many texts That discovering feminism of female subjects show the rise of “artistic consciousness” 3.1.2 Changes of perspective of female subject in contemporary prose There are many changes of viewpoints as female writers compose about their gender and nature Building female character is the main content and forte of women’s contemporary proses Women play the key and central position in comparing with men’s position of periphery in Vietnamese women’s prose As a result, nature also has new shape as it can be seen as independent things with their own destiny, figure and living That creating new 15 perspective about women and nature in Vietnamese women’s contemporary proses is one of main methods to atone for human’s guilty and to recover natural beauty, vitality and to impress central position of both nature and women 3.2 The similarity of beauty in “nature” and “women” in female subjects’ viewpoint 3.2.1 Beauty of women fertility From female subjects’ viewpoint, nature and women have a similarity of beauty, vitality, and their characters are described by specific highlights with feminist writing methods Famous female writers such as Do Hoang Dieu, Y Ban, Vo Thi Xuan Hoa focus on describe women fertility including beauties of breasts, back, leg and hair as a way to show their consciousness of female body In which, bare-chest motif is applied as a way to praise female beauty and vitality and a suggestion of the hamornious interaction between nature and women In a pure and peaceful environment, women can live without any cloths because they seem to be protected by mother nature That creating and describing women with fertility can be seen as an approach to praise a living close with nature in order to build human’s ecology and female writers’ blending perspective By doing so, writers awake human’s consciouness of ecology and gender equality; and maintain the hamornious and equal relation between society and wildlife 3.2.2 Feminine beauty Female subjects under contemporary female writers’ perspective in works Old Trees of Do Hoang Dieu, Pyre of Vo Thi Hao, Endless Field of Nguyen Ngoc Tu have feminine beauty from both their soul and their body, from their willing to protect, support small and weak things By contract, in Enstranged River of Do Hang Dieu or In the rime-water of Vo Thi Xuan Ha, nature contains mother’s characteristic as those writers describe women’s journey to come back home It means that both nature and women have a similarity of feminine beauty This status is original from women’s essential, identity and feminine; and from natural equanimity By discovering feminine beauty of both nature and women, Vietnamese female contemporary writers create a discourse with their own gendercharacteristic Different from men’s demand and desire of controlling and conquering, female writers always want to confirm feminine beauty to prevent human’s pain, and awake their benevolence Towards nature, this beauty is crated in feminine emblem of female tenderness and generosity 3.3 The suitability of nature, “the second sex” and the “peripheral position” 3.3.1 Periphery In discourse of culture and literature, conception of periphery or marginalization presents a sympotic part of formal and main culture However, in this thesis, the author does not discuss political and cultural peripheries but only apply this term as an opposite side of dualism in the structuralism 3.3.2 Men as central power 3.3.2.1 Men’s central and monopolistic position Steady fort of anthropocentrism is a hypnosis of controlling power and the smug felling of ruled people It means that logic of this domination is admitted by both rulers and ruled 16 persons unconsciously and as a result, all people cannot recognize any inequality and feel satisfactory with the maintenance of anthropocentrism With female perspective, works Landlords, Oak’s Shadow of Do Bich Thuy or Rice and Land, Dream of Vo Thi Xuan Ha demonstrate a fact that both nature and women are suffering men’s desire, patriarchy, and domination It is more remarkable mountainous and rural areas without civilization’s influence At those places, men’s power covers and dominates all women 3.3.2.2 Men’s conquering and controlling abilities Mostly men in female subjects’ viewpoint want to confirm their power and influence by dominating strength over other people This status is presented not only by their violent behaviors but also literary discourse This culture is supported by traditional and oldfashioned ideology and promoted by independent position of women in various periods, of their tasks as mother and of their bloodless felling This discourse becomes an informal power to bind and force women to act under men’s rule and domination With this discourse, men become central of the world, while women and nature are peripheries with unfair and inequal This status therefore causes the connection of both nature and women 3.3.3 Women and nature – representatives of slavery and peripheral position 3.3.3.1 Women and nature – slavery Applying Daniel P Marina’s denial instrument to analyze the relation between men and women in Val Plumwood’s anthropocentrism, we recognize that many women’s contemporary prose denied values of women They are only identified in the relationship with men and stood behind men’s living They sacrificed their love, youth, strength for their loving men but in fact their contributions and their jobs are not admitted, even are despised and neglected Both women and nature are tools and methods to serve men’s demands and interests Beyond that, they become slavery under the control and domination of male power 3.3.3.2 Women – sacrificial objects for men’s controlling nature With their peripheral position, women and nature become tools and sacrificial objects to help men in urgent vacations Nguyen Ngoc Tu’ River; Vo Thi Hao’s Pyre, Smile; Vo Thi Xuan Ha’s Sea’s Message or Bo Bich Thuy’s Oak’s Shadow all condemn men for their rush, selfish and cruel treatments towards women Although men take control the world, they often sacrifice women in difficulty situations 3.3.3.3 Women and effects of men’s controlling process Women and their pain from wars A series of works such as The remain of a happy forest, World’s cable, Leave’s blood (Vo Thi Hao); Sparrows in the forest, In the rime-water, Living out of society (Vo Thi Xuan Ha); On the women’s roof (Da Ngan); Until the end (Doan Minh Phuong); A such night (Pham Thi Minh Thu), Forest’s voice (Hien Phuong); Proud wings (Đo Bich Thuy) show that female writers deeply recognize effects and pains of wars towards women, especially their loss and scarifices Theme of wars in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose also demonstrates the relation between women and nature, their destiny and their connection in and post-war Nature is not only scene background of war but it has its own destiny, characteristic and soul As a result, women’s pain and natural pain are combined Female 17 writers understand their hurt, treat them with love and tenderness; and find peaceful feeling from nature to prevent their own pains Women and effects of urbanization Women and effects of natural disasters The urbanization affects negatively to environment It degrades natural resources, reduces trees’ influence and therefore creates negative problems towards ecology and nature Women often play the role of feeding all family’s members and preparing foods Accordingly, women are directly affected by urbanization and they become key victims of this development as it is more difficult for them to earn money and prepare food They more and more become peripheral persons This status is presented clearly in Oak’s Shadow, Red Pebble, Sages on the mountain, Voice of lip fiddle behind the stone fenceo of Do Bich Thuy; Loss in the city, Memmory station of Phong Diep; Paris – 11 August of Thuan; Endless field of Nguyen Ngoc Tu Women and their tragedies Changes of living under the urbanization, changes of economy, spirituality, morality cause women’s pains and this fact is deeply demonstrated in women’s contemporary proses Urban regions are potential for women to change their living standard, to connect with civilization although this place often relates to social evil and awful things Those terrible things are serious traps to push women on bad metamorphosis This loss, degradation appears in each small family in rural areas Many famous works of Phong Diep (Loss in the city, Memmory station), Nie Thanh Mai (After the death), Nguyen Huong (Avocado), Do Bich Thuy (Oak’s Shadow), Nguyen Ngoc Tu (Endless Field), Nguyen Thi Thu Hue (An absent city) show female writers’ insecurity, and worry about social crisis during the process of urbanization and industrialization Women and tragedies of peripheral migrants Desiring to escape their poor and backward living, many women decide to move out their villages, destroy their traditional connections to go to urban areas to find opportunities for their life Being migrants at overseas countries or different places, women are more and more peripheral without family and close relations They are existing “second sex” with lower rank in society and they are easy to be hurt due to the urbanization This status is clarified in Chinatown, Paris 11 August, Made in VietNam (Thuan), and Until the end (Đoan Minh Phuong) 3.3.4 Empathy and understanding of women and nature from peripheral position Empathizing and sharing “pain” with animals Respecting with natural equality, female writers in the contemporary period raise questions about the relation between human and nature They are shown in Stone’s adaopted children – Vo Thi Hao; A dog and a divorce – Da Ngan; Bamboo’s flower, Where is my child, Sun’s terrace – Que Huong; Isolated Wind, Endless Field – Nguyễn Ngọc Tư From ruled position in the connection with men, both women and nature have similar empathy to share their pain The innocent and honest characteristic of animals helps to share women’s painful 18 felling In the anthropocentrism, women find their peace and love from natural environment and therefore, they consider animals as close friends and are willing to protect them Respect, love and connect with living environment Women are willing to protect their living conditions and environment as they love their ecology Women respect and love enviroment speficically In short-stories of Vo Thi Xuan Ha (Rice and Soil, Happy Rice, Dream, Festival of Rice, Peaceful Soil), female subjects always have innocent love and close relationship with nature Female subjects of Ha Thi Cam Anh (Scabrous origins), Hien Phuong (Forest’s Voice) only find their peace-mind and love as they treat humorously with nature and they try to protect forest – human’s green lungs In those prose, female subjects are isolated with society and they have nature as a way, a friend to recover their soul From women’s instinct and feminine characteristic, women can listen and understand natural voice, empathize with nature and consider environment as a close friend 3.3.5 Nature and women’s bravery and defense Escaping slavery by arguing discourse Women’s defence is pesented in their transformation from peripheral position to central role to re-locate their values with arguing and discussing discourses Daring and understanding to argue old-fashioned model is a result of an equality in discussion and of a development in women’s awareness Feminine discourse in female writers’ prose will be sharp, serious as female subjects dare to argue old and stable anthropocentrism From feminine discourse to the raise of nature From female writers’ viewpoint, nature is not a speechless world Non-human world can raise its voice, argue and struggle to fight against human’s invasion and expansion With arguing discourse, female writers awake the voice of nature and help people to recognize and understand the degradation-situation of environment under humans’ effects Understanding nature, viewing the world by nature’s perspective, female writers partly contribute to raise argument to promote natural equality, and to protect nature and society (Tran Thi Anh Nguyet, 2016) Conclusion Ecofeminist discourse is organized by a parallel expression of nature and women Firstly, it shows the similarity of feminine beauty Nature is considered as origins to feed humanity, and women have function of producing and feeding/take caring Moreover, the relationship between nature and women are presented as both of them are easy to become victims of climate changes, environment degradation and the urbanization With position of a victim, both nature and women empathize and share ideology in the journey to argue and fight against anthropocentrism Many texts show the relation and combination of gender inequality and nature’s risks in the human-centered model or dualism Creating new voice of both nature and women in Vietnamese women’s contemporary proses is a way to atone for human’s crime, to recover natural and female beauty, vitality and to confirm their subject-position 19 CHAPTER NATURE AND WOMEN VIA NARRATION METHOD OF VIETNAMESE WOMEN’S CONTEMPORARY PROSE 4.1 Discourse of women narration – an approach to present ecofeminism in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose 4.1.1 Discoure of female narration In autobiographic works of female writers, narration discourse demonstrates feminism with voices of speakers or via female subjects’ language They appear as independent subjects with strong voice and attack anthropocentrism by specific methods in their narration In this thesis, the author considers that feminine narration is a narration with close connection with perfuming a story and it is clear with language of speakers in literary works 4.1.2 Characteristic of discourse’s female narration Its figure is discovering human’s inner depth, presenting their soul and showing their self-love If discourse of male narration considers individual with social targets, historical events, discourse of female narration focuses on emotion, feel, and thinking about daily life If male discourse wants to expand male role to discover and declare their position by conquering and controlling natural world, female discourse has inside viewpoints to show their feeling and behaviors and to narrate their own life and gender’s destiny Discourse of female narration can be seen as a way for women to perform their dreams of showing their feminism By applying art as a method to transfer ecofeminist discourse, Vietnamese female contemporary writers build a specific narration method with characteristic of feminism to warn and awake human’s treatment towards both nature and women In which, nature and the second sex become a famous and popular content of narration with inside viewpoint of female writers 4.2 Self-narration as a form of a popular skill of autobiographical writing 4.2.1 Conceptions about self-narration The author use this term with broad meanings, as a way of thinking arts, as a specific composing approach of female writers Their works are results of self-telling their life, and each event has close relation with their own lifetime Because of historical influence with anthropocentrism and the unique figure of women, narration becomes a characteristic in women’s works and autobiographic motif covers both contents and forms of their works This method is a way for them to self-discover, to present their desire of empathy and to confirm their characteristic in men’s world 4.2.2 Women-style of self-narration – a unique characteristic Autobiography is a popular method in both male and female writers’ works However, because of individuals’ demands and of the aims of severing gender, narration in female literature becomes a specific autobiographic type in women’s prose Their own life are real materials to compose, but they not only copy simply their life but use them in a creative way As a results, their main works of women is autofiction (combining two inconsistent narrative forms, autobiography and fiction) From viewpoints of human and real society, autobiography has transferred ecofeminist discourse in various ways: 20 Autobiography – present nature’s beauty in women’s recollection By using their own real life as materials to compose, female writers always reminisce and find information in historical events to understand deeply their personality In their memory, nature always plays a key role of a signal to help women to find their own figures and position Nature recovers women’s life in the complex and difficult society; and coming back to Mother Nature is an approach to understand their life Famous works in this branch is I came back to the mountain (Đo Bich Thuy), ABCD novel (Y Ban) and Flower inside human’s soul (Da Ngan) Autobiography – reflective viewpoint of periphery Autobiography is female writers’ awakening and discovering their own life and personality in the complex society Presenting real society is also women’s internal desire and it promotes them to compose and expound Facing gender inequality and anthropocentrism, women compose to narrate and show unfair reality and to raise a voice to fight against imbalanced society Autobiography – forms to show individual’s figure Via autobiography, female writers analyze, explain, re-examine to find their own truth It is not only recollection but also new viewpoint to awake in new living conditions They compose to explain, or to admit their mistake and require others’ understanding and sympathy or to remove all misunderstanding or unjustified things imposed on women Female writers understand deeply pains, fragility and periphery of the second sex in a complex and unfair society Beyond that, those works present women’s worry about human crisis in the development of urbanization and the industrialization as they also create negative effects of environment degradation, a society without nature Autobiography is therefore a way for women to present themselves to examine human life and to protect feminine figure 4.2.3 Autobiography from presenting approach Autobiography of the first subject and the self-experience Telling approach of the first subject gets a large number ration in women writer’s proses Speakers self-call “I” and in most cases, they are ‘self-experienced” which is different from the subject of witnessers to tell other’ stories Speakers are female subjects with many experiences and they want to tell, to explain their stories from inside soul and private felling In this type of autobiography, by creating a way of feminist method of presentation, speakers have chances to chat and discuss with audience and readers This presenting model is quite popular in Vietnamese women’s contemporary proses and it is effective to narrate and describe the connection between nature and women Autobiography of the third subject with female perspective In this type of autobiography, the personality of speakers does not appear popularly in the first subject, but in another subject – the third one with female viewpoints It means that this subject is considered and told with female outlook – the main figure of the prose From female perspective, real society and the third subject’s life are told with feminist approach and experience 21 4.3 Styles of second sex’s discourse’s harmonization 4.3.1 Harmonizing between monologue and conversation It is necessary to harmonize both monologue and conversation to present female observation, feeling and empathy towards nature It is an effective way for female writers to describe precisely and truthy the connection between women and nature That conversation intervenes into the process of monologue helps readers and audience to understand the natural – female relationship deeply The way and characteristic of conversating with nature in ecofeminist prose is quite different from other ways of conversation in writing about only animals Writers not create questions and answers between human and non-human worlds or not follow the ways of parallel speaking The understanding and empathy in the prose are mainly performed via inside monologue, recollection, self-inquiry of women and nature Talking with nature in the inside monologue helps female subjects to listen and understand the voice of nature This conversation is quite special as it does not include talker and listener, but it happens in female subjects’ soul and ideology Talking with nature is a way to put yourself in the position of nature and helps people to recognize their treatment towards environment and challenges and risks from nature in the next decades 4.3.2 Harmonizing between speakers’ discourses and figure’s self-discourse This type is a combination between speakers’ language and subjects’ voice This conversation is not combined with inside monologue but most of discourses have indirect connection with monologue’s voice and subjects’ thinking The combination of those discourses in Vietnamese women’s prose helps to obtain the most effective results in autobiography That speakers’ language interleaves with subjects’ language, the combination of various types of discourses expand the story’s amplitude and create conversation It is also creative way to compose proses and to build Vietnamese women’s contemporary writers’ polyphony in their autobiographic discourses 4.4 Ways to create “sign space” and symbol of nature and “second sex” 4.4.1 Sign space of second sex as victims of urban-space code In order to create sign space for women and nature, female writers build codes for both female subjects, urban-space, and natural wildlife As a results, that describing victims in ecofeminist literary criticism is to order people understand naturalism and build spirit-ecology and the ideology of equality in society All those codes are settled in a sign-space systems with time-code, structure-code, language-code; and in a symbol system about nature and the second sex to have a comprehensive text relating to ecofeminism 4.4.2 Nature and its archetype’s emblem Being a metaphor of the second sex, natural emblems in Vietnamese women’s contemporary writers are not silent and insensitive but lively and real things with multimeaning art symbols and with highly representative value From other perspectives, those natural emblems are considered as examples and evidences of archetype In which waterarchetype, land-archetype and flower-archetype in female prose are obsessive emblems Regenerating archetypes in culture and folk customs, in national myth ideology, contemporary 22 female writers try to show their consciousness about their personality with characteristic and unique identity of ecofeminism in Vietnam The archetype of water From ecofeminist viewpoint, the archetype of water in women’s contemporary proses is valuable in recover women from men’s dangers because water can clean, and recover their body hurt and soothe their painful soul Water has many similar characteristics with women such as they are negative, origins of world’s life, a factor of regeneration, and emblem of pregnancy In the journey to find the origins of anthropocentrism from myth, Simone discovers the connection between nature, especially water and women Women are soil and men are seeds, women are water and men are fire (Beauvoir, 1996) Accordingly, water is women’s home and they come back with water to be protected, shared and soothed their pains The archetype of flower and grass The archetype of flower and grass is applied by women’s writers to build female subjects to respect their feminist beauty This emblem relates to fragile, pure but powerful beauty of women From the ecofeminist viewpoint, flower and grass are mainly applied as natural emblems of feminism, vitality, desire of freedom and power to recover women As such, that using this archetype presents the close relationship between women and nature The archetype of soil Via investigating presentative meaning of soil-archetype in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose, we recognize that although there are different variants, both soil and feminist are similar in figure of pregnancy, feeding and protection From ecofeminist perspective, that applying those archetype-emblems can open many level-meanings of the relationship between women and nature Conclusion With consciousness about ecology and gender equality, Vietnamese women’s contemporary writers create a specific method to present ecofeminism In which, autobiography is one of the most popular and effective method to transfer gender’s democracy and freedom and rights They compose to self-explain, self-narrate in order to show and confirm their role and position on modern society, and to demonstrate their ability to create own discourses They also apply skills and technics of harmonizing different discourses such as between discourses of monologue and conversation, of telling and describing language This combination has truth and lively effects to awake natural and female voices In order to transfer ecofeminism, female writers settle a system of sign-space about the second sex, natural emblems with archetype (soil, flower, water) to open meaning about the connection and similarity between women’s destiny and nature’s situation Beyond that, women’s contemporary writers establish their own organization of language and voice to have effective results in applying ecofeminism CONCLUSIONS 23 The appearance of ecofeminist literary criticism in Vietnam is a signal for an asymptotic development of Vietnamese literary theory in a general post-modern trend of global literature In order to prepare necessary and required theories for building an ecology and feminism suited in Vietnam, many researchers start to translate and study ecofeminism The combination between the gender revolution and green revolution therefore partly contributes to develop and improve Vietnamese writers’ thinking about environmentprotection and gender equality However, via investigating the above works of Vietnamese contemporary prose, we recognize that the establishment and application of ecofeminism in Vietnam is just at beginning level Traditional Vietnamese proses exists both feminism and ecologism before importing the new trend of ecofeminism in the contemporary prose In recent years, the changes of democracy and Vietnam’s development and connection with international world create opportunities for Vietnamese prose to import new literary theories, including ecological criticism and feminist literary criticism Our investigation shows that although ecological feminism just appeared and developed after the Innovation of 1986, but its origins and signals always existed in Vietnamese prose, from folk literature to contemporary literature It means that Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose is influenced both from Western theories of ecologism and ecofeminism; and the figure of Vietnamese Mother worship and a way of living close with nature of an agricultural civilization It is noticeable that some writers’ ideology of ecofeminism has no signal or influence of Western theory, but their own demands of showing and presenting Moreover, advantageous condition of history, society, culture and ideology partly contribute to promote the increase of ecofeminism in Vietnamese contemporary prose Combining all the above reasons, contemporary Vietnamese female writers build their own discourse to blend female issues into ecological problems to create a branch of ecofeminist literature Firstly, this ideology is quite faint besides other theories Later, with the involvement of many young female writers who is sensitive with social problems and ecological risks, ecofeminism in Vietnam obtains more results as writers can connect their own felling with peripheral position of both nature and women Ecofeminism becomes an important trend of Vietnamese contemporary prose From the late 20th century, this theory is applied popularly and Vietnamese writers exploited this ideology with various composing styles By investigating Vietnamese contemporary proses, we evaluate standard of ecofeminist morality with the bellow evidences: Investigating deeply ecofeminist beauty of both nature and women as feminine beauty and fertility; Discovering the loss of nature and women from peripheral perspective and others’ viewpoint; Confirming potential struggling consciousness of both nature and women and natural voice in the modern period; Deconstructing humancentrism and the gender inequality and prejudice in both human society and natural world Being an independent creator, female writers tend to establish new own value and standard to build a “female writing style” with own discourse in applying ecofeminism This discourse is original from nature and women’s similarity of peripheral position From female subjects’ viewpoint, writers discover and describe the 24 connection, similarity of feminine beauty, vitality, and defense of both nature and women Under the model of anthropocentrism, peripheral destinies of nature and women understand, protect, support and recover together Female writers also changed recklessly in their gender-thinking by connecting, interacting and struggling with anthropocentrism By doing so, they transfer from position of victims to a positive and challenging position On the one side, they still show the higher rank of men in anthropocentrism, but in the other hand the build a new value for modern women (strong, reckless, active, positive, and struggling) to argue the change and transformation of women and nature’s position As a result, nature in women’s viewpoint is powerful things with ability of listen, understand and recover with meanings of beauty and the similarity between women and nature From the second sex perspective, female writers understand both nature and women’s feeling, desire to liberate themselves and their potential to fight against men’s domination Ecofeminism influences deeply proses’ artistic methods as choosing narrating way, organizing viewpoint of autobiography, harmonizing discourses and building signspace and emblems about nature and the second sex Female autobiography creates a way to transform specific ecofeminist feeling of female writers Ways of harmonizing discourses and building sign-space and female subject code, space-code, symbol-code partly contribute to highlight the relation between natural and female relations in writers’ artistic world This is not only a development of their autobiographic skill but also an example of their personality, figure in combining with national culture of feminist characteristic and symbol system This thesis still has limitation in dealing with main content of ecofeminism in Vietnamese contemporary prose They are suggestions for the author to deeply research in future Ecofeminism is a combination of both ecological criticism and feminist literary criticism, and interdisciplinary knowledge because the appearance of ecofeminism fully depends on natural and social conditions including the reduction of morality value, and climate changes This researching trend is therefore quite large and can study indiscipline such as eco-urbanism, ecological post-colonist, ecological social class It is necessary to research more on sub-branches of ecofeminism such as vegetarian ecofeminism, spiritual ecofeminism, and materialist ecofeminism, liberal ecofeminism, radical feminism, third wave of ecofeminism They are a direction for the author’s future research LISTS OF THE AUTHOR’S PUBLICATIONS Hoang Le Anh Ly (2017), Researching Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose from ecofeminist viewpoint, National Conferences for Postgraduate Students, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, pp 1-12 Hoang Le Anh Ly (2017), Nature and women in Que Huong’s short-stories from ecofeminism, International Conference: Ecological literary criticism: local and global voices, Social Sciences Publisher, pp 766- 781 Hoang Le Anh Ly (2018), Ecofeminism in Vo Thi Hao’s short-stories, National Conferences for Postgraduate Students, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, pp 193-203 Hoang Le Anh Ly (2019), The archetype of soil in Vietnamese women’s short-stories under ecofeminist perspective, National Conferences for Postgraduate Students, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, pp Hoang Le Anh Ly (2019), Characteristics of discourse about ecofeminism in Vietnamese women’s contemporary prose, Research Project of Tay Nguyen University, completed in 12/2019 Hoang Le Anh Ly (2019), Vo Thi Xuan Ha’ prose under the ecofeminist literary criticism, National Conference: Literature and Gender, Hue University Press, pp 424437 Hoang Le Anh Ly (2020), The archetype of flower in Que Huong’s short-stories from the ecofeminist perspective, Tay Nguyen University: Journal of Science, vol 40, pp 113118 Hoang Le Anh Ly (2021), Issues of urbanization and women’s destiny in Do Bich Thuy’s prose from ecofeminist perspective Journal of Literature Review, vol 4, tr 42-51 ... Ngat, Phan Thi Thanh Nhan, Anh Tho, Viet Anh, Thuy Bac, Cam Lai, Hoang Thi Minh Khanh, Le Thi May mentioned the negative effects of war towards nature as a way to denounce Vietnamese rivalries’... Ba Huyen Thanh Quan, Doan Thi Diem, Ngo Chi Lan, Truong Thi Trong, Nguyen Tinh Hoa played their key role in the development and improvement of Vietnam’s prose in general and of Vietnamese women’s... Education Supervisors: Associate Dr Nguyen Thanh Thi (name, position, and degree) Reviewer 1: Associate Dr Bui Thanh Truyen Reviewer 2: Associate Dr Tran Hoai Anh Reviewer 3: Associate Dr Tran Thi Phương
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