Nature, Spirit, and Civilization: A Study of Ecological Narrative in Dust Settles
Abstract
The long novel Dust Settles by Tibetan writer Alai narrates the collapse of the chieftain system. The story, told from the first-person perspective of the Idiot Young Master, chronicles the power struggles, territorial expansion, tribal conflicts, and the journey into modernity of a powerful chieftain family, ultimately concluding with the complete disintegration of the chieftain system. The narrative, rich in Tibetan characteristics, reflects the natural ecology, spiritual ecology, civilizational ecology, and political ecology of the Tibetan region during a specific era. It elucidates the intersubjectivity between nature and spirit within ecological narrative, thoroughly deconstructing the political and social ecological inertia of Tibetan human civilization over millennia.
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