A Constructive Analysis and Theoretical Expansion of Ecological Ethical Consciousness in Early German Romantic Literature Aided by Information Technology

The ethical consciousness of literary ecology is shown in Figure 1. Literary ecology refers to the literature that examines and expresses the relationship between nature and human beings, explores the social roots of ecological crises, and engages in and expresses unique ecological aesthetics based on the ideological foundation of ecological holism and the supreme value of the interests of the ecosystem as a whole. Its prominent features are ecological responsibility, cultural criticism, ecological ideal, ecological warning and ecological aesthetics, which not only have their own characteristics in terms of ideology, but also have their unique aesthetic purposes, aesthetic concepts, aesthetic characteristics and aesthetic methods in terms of aesthetics and art. Among them, the ecological aesthetics of ecocriticism has four major principles, namely the principle of naturalness, the principle of wholeness, the principle of integration, and the principle of inter-subjectivity. The main task of eco-literature is to take the ecological concept of wholeness, connection and harmony as its guiding ideology, and to use literary works as a medium for ideological and cultural critique, so as to excavate and reveal the ideological and cultural roots of the ecological crisis and to promote the ideological and cultural change of mankind.

Figure 1.

The ethical consciousness of literary ecology

In the process of historical evolution and complexity of human society, the relationship between human and nature has shown a less optimistic development trend, and various crises have forced thoughts to reflect on the direction of culture and history. Air pollution, the destruction of the ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, the sharp decline in species diversity, and other manifestations of the imbalance of the earth and environmental degradation are hints of the existential crisis of mankind as a living species. At the same time, the emergence of social and cultural crises in the areas of ethics, morality, concepts and beliefs reminds us of the deeper foundations of the relationship between human beings and nature in the course of civilization. From the unity of heaven and man in the totemic period, to the ethnic identity in the religious century, to the individuality in the scientific era, the estrangement of man from nature and the estrangement of man from man are only two results of a single process. Conversely, it may be the alienation of man from nature that leads to the alienation of man from nature. Therefore, ecological literature is about discovering and rediscovering the relationship between man and nature, and it is inevitably the beginning of cultural reflection in the era of post-materialist civilization. Literary ecology explores the laws of existence of nature as a whole, including human beings, organic and inorganic matter, and in particular the laws of ecological development that point to adaptation, evolution, and interconnectedness. In the scientific discourse of literary ecology, human beings and their behavior do not have a special value meaning, although they have historically had a special significance. Literature records the way of life of the times and is an important constructor of ecological patterns of behavior. Ecological literature has also become a key to understanding literature that reflects on the development of a material civilization that is reproduced. Historically, the ideology and ethics of eco-literature have simply developed in tandem with the environmental literature of the age of material civilization. Revisiting the central focus of human cultural, economic, and religious beliefs in the context of ecological literature necessitates an experimental world of possibilities and worldviews in literature. The original purpose of eco-literature is to provide literary criticism with a discursive space in which it can release its own energy.

The Romantic cultural movement was the first cultural movement in the history of Western literature to criticize industrial civilization and depict man and nature. Under the influence of the Enlightenment and the Classical Movement, Romantic writers, on the one hand, continued to explore Christian doctrine and constantly disseminated the connotations and true meaning of post-neo-secularized spiritual life. On the other hand, faced with the drastic transformation of agricultural culture into industrial culture, they created a large number of literary classics that transcended time and regions in just a few decades. The Romantics promote emotion and imagination, pursue inspiration and passion, yearn for nature, return to nature and sense nature, and seek a natural personality that is perfect, harmonious and serene in nature, the spiritual mentor and soul home of mankind.

The research in this paper is oriented towards German Romanticism, interpreting and analyzing representative German Romantic writers and their works, and analyzing the ecological revelation in German Romantic literature. As far as Germany is concerned, German ecological literature has been branded with the mark of the times, especially the two world wars and the adverse effects on the environment caused by the development of science, technology and industry, which made the ecological literary works of this period reach an unprecedented height and depth in terms of content, thought and expression.

Goethe is one of the most important representatives of German romantic literature. This great German writer demonstrated the connection between all things in nature in a poetic world that is clear, pure, and full. Goethe emphasized in Poetry and Truth: “I believe that in nature, whether animate or inanimate, whether soulful or soulless, there is something that is always in contradiction and therefore cannot be expressed in concepts, much less in words.” The “something” is in fact the mysterious nature. Everything in nature interacts and influences each other, and this operation helps to maintain the beauty of the community of life and contributes to the harmony and stability of the ecosystem.

Novalis was the most important thinker and writer of the early German Romanticism, and the “blue flower” is a common symbol and typical symbol of Romantic literature. His works contain a strong color of “inner nature”. He compared the universe to the “macrocosmic man” and the man to the “microcosmic universe”, just as the human state of mind is a small world, the world is a big state of mind. Because the human state of mind is connected to the “world state of mind”, the human heart can be regarded as a mirror. He believed that the only way to understand the “source of analogy” of all things in the universe is to go into the heart of a human being in order to find the organ of understanding the world. Modern man is precisely forgetting his own heart, tired of chasing after external things, not only does he not know the world, but also the materialization and objectification of the world, which has turned the living organism into a usable material.

Eichendorff, as an important representative writer of German romantic literature, places the main character under the beautiful natural scenery, takes roaming as the theme and the pursuit of love as the red thread, and connects the whole story into an organic whole. Especially the large amount of nature writing and copying played a key role in the formation of a perfect natural personality of an artistic youth during their roaming and growing process. From the perspective of ecological aesthetics, it is also different from other Romantic works of the same time, because the writers in the creative process of natural aesthetics, not like some Romantic writers, who readily objectify or instrumentalize nature, and regard the aesthetic object of nature as a dichotomous object, which becomes a tool for expressing, manifesting, comparing, implying and symbolizing the inner world and personality characteristics of human beings, but abandon the dualistic view of the subject’s dichotomy and antagonism. Instead, it rejects the dualistic view of subject dichotomy and always pursues an ecological concept of equality and harmony in the process of nature writing.

In general, the ecological aesthetic spirit of early German Romanticism is inseparable from the concept of “nature”. The ecological embodiment of German Romanticism is shown in Figure 2. In German Romanticism, nature has multiple meanings; it is influenced by social ideology, social environment and development, and is the antithesis of primitive state of existence and civilization; it also has the connotation of divinity, which brings richer knowledge than rationality, and at the same time it is also the tutor of art and beauty, which constitute the basis for the formation of the natural personality. Then, through art forms, nature is melted into human nature, influencing and inspiring man as an individual, so that human emotions become more in line with natural nature, and become a bridge between nature and the human mind. Therefore, the ecological spiritual quality of Romanticism is to express human emotions freely, focus on human intuitive sensitivity, advocate enthusiasm and curiosity for the world, and endeavor to apply the wisdom gained from nature creatively to human practical activities, and cultivate a perfect natural personality and moral sentiment.

Figure 2.

The literary ecology of Germany’s spread

The development of information technology and the renewal of the media have led to dramatic changes in literature. In an ontological sense, the media model of computer networks has brought about a fundamental change in the way literature exists. Under the dual influence of information technology and the law of literary development, the mode of operation, development trend, and presentation of literature have undergone significant changes. Therefore, this paper analyzes the impact of information technology on the development of Romantic literary communication.

Information technology has a significant impact on the development and dissemination of Romanticism literature, as well as on the literary ecological connotation of Romanticism. Literary ecology is an ecological reflection influenced by social ideology, social environment and development, and with the development of the times, the information age also gives it new values and connotations, enriching and expanding the theoretical embodiment of literary ecology.

In a sense, literary ecology is the environment in which literature grows, which recognizes the literary environment from a sociological point of view. Literary ecology is borrowing the term of natural environment to illustrate the literary survival environment, which contains many aspects, such as the social and cultural evaluation system of literary occurrence and development, the literary market, the external factors such as the readers’ reading interest, and the main body of creation and criticism. The expansion of literary ecology under information technology can be seen in Fig. 3. With the assistance of information technology, the expansion of Romanticism’s literary ecology is mainly reflected in various aspects such as creation methods, dissemination channels, creative content, ecological theories, and cultural development.

Figure 3.

Information technology is extended below

The rapid development of information technology and the gradual entry of human beings into the age of intelligence and enjoyment of various conveniences brought about by science and technology have affected the subjective conditions for the producers of Romantic literature to create under such a general environment. The creator’s life experience relies more on indirect experience in the electronic media era, because the Internet is fast and complete, and it is more convenient for the creative subject to obtain indirect experience. The literature dissemination environment in the era of electronic media has the characteristics of popularization and extensiveness, which makes the form of literature dissemination richer and more vivid, and can meet the needs of different readers. Electronic media has injected new vitality into literary communication, and literary producers use digital media to promote their literary works and attract more people to participate in literary communication. On the other hand, the assistance of information technology has increased literary productivity and lowered the threshold of literary dissemination, expanding literary production and consumption from a niche to the masses and leading to the massification of literary subjects’ involvement and participation in literary activities.

From the perspective of the expansion of the theory of literary ecology, writers have always been one of the most sensitive groups in the face of any social crisis. With the development of the times, literary ecology still plays a pioneering role in saving the global ecological crisis. It is also the literary ecology, which is full of warnings and forward-looking significance, that has issued the first voice of ecological concern. Although the global ecological crisis is the most direct and intrinsic reason for the occurrence of ecocriticism, it is the writers who awakened to the ecological problems earlier who provided the important basic texts for ecocriticism. In terms of the development of literary ecocritics theory, the promotion, review, and study of literary ecological works constitute the practical dimension and an important part of the theory system of ecocriticism. Therefore, the study of the practice of literary criticism under the ecological perspective is undoubtedly an important component of the study of the generation of the theoretical form of ecocriticism. Ecocriticism theory is the foundation of literary ecocriticism, and the perfection or otherwise of its theoretical form directly determines the theoretical direction and development level of ecological literary criticism. In addition to its own ecological critical function, the important role of ecocritical theory is to discuss and improve the theoretical basis, spiritual resources, critical principles, critical methods and other basic issues that guide the practice of ecological literary criticism. The innovative eco-literature, literary ecology, eco-aesthetics, and other eco-criticism theories have become a beautiful landscape in the process of literary ecological development.