Abstract: The Summer Before The Dark is one of the representative works of Doris Lessing, a British writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. The novel mainly describes a British middle class housewife Kate and her life’s experience in a summer. It tells how Kate endures the control of traditional marriage and family, which caused her to suffer from mental torture. Finally it criticized the spiritual oppression of Patriarchy on women. This paper analyzes Kate’s way of self-consciousness based on the text from eco-feminism perspective. It concludes that Kate’s self-consciousness is related to the natural scenery. The natural scenery cured Kate’s mental illness and also helped her to get the goal of life. Kate achieved self growth of awakening, resistance, escape and return. On the way of awakening, Kate completed the transcendence of female self-consciousness then returned to the family.

Key words: eco-feminism; Kate; self- awareness; Patriarchy; nature

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 Doris Lessing and Her Works-1

1.2 Previous Study of The Summer Before The Dark-2

2. Theoretical Background of Self-consciousness Study-4

2.1 Historical Background and Eco-feminism Theory-4

2.2 Eco-feminism and Women’s Self-consciousness-6

3. Ecological Ethics in The Summer Before The Dark-8

3.1 Inequality between Man and Woman under the Patriarchy-8

3.2 Kate’s Resistance to Patriarchy-10

4. Eco-feminism in the Development of Kate’s Self-consciousness-12

4.1 The rise of Kate’s Self-consciousness-12

4.2 The Interaction between Kate’s Self-consciousness and the Nature-15

4.2.1 The Nature and Kate-15

4.2.2 The Seal Dream with Kate-17

5. Conclusion-19

References-21