An Eco-Critical Study of Richard Power’s The Overstory
Banaz Wirya Ali
Lebanese French University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/Lang.8.10.19
Keywords: Eco criticism, Eco Feminism, Environment, Richard Powers, Overstory
Abstract
The Overstory by Richard Powers (2018) is a novel with intricate narrative threads that blend human stories with the ecological. In doing so, the paper adopts eco-criticism as its theoretical framework which delivers familiarity between literary texts and the natural environment. This study focuses on how the lives of trees in the book suit to mirror human experience and tries to understand how it is a challenge to anthropocentrism, call for environmental stewardship, and critique the contemporary ecological crisis. It seeks to clarify how The Overstory works as an advocacy for environmental preservation and a re-examination of humanity's place in nature is one aspect defined. This paper demonstrates how the novel could be more effectively utilized for ecological awareness and advocacy by integrating eco-criticism and analyzing Powers’ approach to structure, character, and language. The study explores the text regarding deep ecological allegory and eco-criticism, as well as nature\'s agency, or pseudo-agency, through animals. The study helps to understand better how literature can represent and affect societal responses to environmental crises and sustainability.
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