Author(s): Ma Chaofan, Wang Wei

Abstract: Terry Tempest Williams’s nonfiction Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place interweaves family trauma and ecological crisis through a dual narrative, standing as a classic spanning nature writing, trauma literature, and women’s literature. Using Lu Shuyuan’s Spiritual Ecology theory as its core framework, this paper focuses on two manifestations of spiritual ecological imbalance reflected in the work’s illness writing, spiritual vacuum and behavioral incompetence, analyzes the underlying causes behind the imbalance, and explores the practical paths for the reconstruction of spiritual ecology. The study finds that ecological pollution caused by nuclear tests and alienation from nature driven by anthropocentrism jointly lead to the imbalance of individual spiritual ecology. However, the restoration and reconstruction of spiritual ecology can be achieved through individuals’ self-reconciliation with illness and the reconstruction of spiritual connections between humans and nature. The similar fates of the community of women and bird species in the work not only reveal the dual crises of spiritual ecological imbalance and natural ecological destruction in modern society but also provide a literary reference for contemporary people to address spiritual predicaments and ecological challenges.

Keywords: Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place; Spiritual Ecology; Illness Writing; Spiritual Ecological Imbalance

Article Info: Received: 11 Jun 2026; Received in revised form: 06 Jul 2026; Accepted: 10 Jul 2026; Available online: 14 Jul 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.114.11