DECIPHERING THE CANOPY: TREES AND THEIR ASSERTIVE ECHOES IN THE OVERSTORY

Abstract

This paper examines Richard Powers’s novel The Overstory with specific reference to challenging traditional forms of narration. We argue that Powers’s novel challenges anthropocentric biases in narration by centralizing trees in his text and advocating eco-consciousness. However, the novel provides a significant shift in human-centric narration by acknowledging the interconnectedness and interdependence of human and non-human entities. Drawing upon the conceptual horizons of the material ecocriticism, this paper suggests that matter is not passive rather, it’s a site from where meanings can be generated and conveyed, and stories can be told. It makes us rethink the question of agency, interconnectedness, and narrativity. We will deploy material-discursive practices and intra-action put forward by Karen Barad and semiotic-materiality being co-constituted by Donna Haraway to address the activeness of matter in overall environmental operations. Hence, this paper argues that materials convey meanings, they are the co-participators of humans in the physical world, and they can bring a transformative shift through their meaningful existence.    

Keywords: The Overstory, centralization of trees, anthropocentrism, material ecocriticism, Karen Barad and Donna Haraway.