The ecological imagination : nature, technology, and criticism in Chinese science fiction, 1976-today

This dissertation examines the representations of ecology and science in modern Chinese literature and film. My objective is to understand how modern Chinese eco-perspectives influence and are conditioned by ideas about science and technology. I analyze science fiction (and other science-oriented) novels, short stories, and films using a range of multidisciplinary methodologies. I argue that ideas about ecology are deeply entangled with ideas about scientific progress, but in recent years they have become a vehicle for critiquing modern technoscientific development. Altogether, this study sheds new light on a variety of ecological perspectives from modern Chinese narratives. It also contributes a new perspective to the broader humanistic study of technology and ecology. This dissertation introduces the term "the ecological imagination, " which refers to the representation of one's surroundings including its human and nonhuman composition, as well as the range of material, social, and personal interactions fostered within this space. The ecological imagination is a flexible lens of analysis focused on the holistic interpretation of what ecology is envisioned to become, and what it means to and with humanity. In contrast to scholarship centered on clearly identifiable environmental genres such as "nature writing" and "climate fiction, " I read for the perceived human-nature relationship in narratives as communicated through the oft-overlooked descriptions of material interactions. In this way, I posit that even highly technological futures can be read as eco-futures. My work draws upon scholarship from a wide array of cultures and historical contexts grounded in the criticism of technology. Looking to complicate Heidegger's notion that technology "enframes" ideas about nature, I examine how ideas about technology and ideas about ecology co-produce each other. I draw upon a variety of sources that identify imagination and fantastic dreams as the catalyst of scientific and technological development to posit that this co-production occurs during the ideation stage of technological progress. If ecocritic Lawrence Buell was correct in arguing that changing human actions on and with the environment requires first a change in our culture, then I posit that it is at the intersection of ecological imagination and technological imagination that this potential change occurs and must be studied. This is the first extensive study on ecocriticism and Chinese science fiction. I examine and compare works written from the last year of the Mao era through today. Chapter One argues that science-oriented narratives in 1970s China used ecology to aestheticize the ideology of science, but there were two competing scientific epistemes. Chapter Two argues that these epistemes were cobbled together in the immediate post-Mao years when the literary landscape underwent significant changes, laying the groundwork for a new "boom" of science literature in the Deng Xiaoping era. Chapter three argues that literature and film in the Deng era continued to use ecology to aestheticize science, but some used this perspective to critically explore changing ideas about humanity's place in the physical world. Chapter Four argues that contemporary Chinese science fiction transforms ecological representations into a weapon of criticism, channeling public sentiment while also shedding light on problems of urban ecology. Chapter Five examines how the contemporary bestselling science fiction novel The Three Body Problem plays with the prospect of condemning humanity for its ecological harm, but ultimately yearns for humanistic ethical responses to eco-crisis

Keywords: East Asian Languages and Cultures.
Advisor: Lee Haiyan
Wang Ban
Hoyos Ayala Héctor
Zur Dafna