“Enlightenment Is a Shared Enterprise”: Tree Ecosystems and the Legacy of Modernity in Richard Powers’s The Overstory

Ostalska, Katarzyna

dc.contributor.author	Ostalska, Katarzyna
dc.date.accessioned	2022-11-28T07:49:24Z
dc.date.available	2022-11-28T07:49:24Z
dc.date.issued	2022-11-24
dc.identifier.issn	2083-2931
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/11089/44371
dc.description.abstract	In Richard Powers’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Overstory (2018) the theme of the novel is the forest ecosystem, with a special emphasis placed on trees, upon whose developmental model the processes of (organic and industrial) growth are scrutinized in this novel. This article examines tree-human assemblages in detail to see how they exchange their material agency and how they relate to the e/Enlightenment project. The essay also explores Powers’s novel to examine how Buddhist values of spiritual enlightenment are contextualized within European Enlightenment and how decentred humanity finds its place among other non-human beings. Apart from fictitious characters from The Overstory, the article draws upon the research of real-life scientists who inspired the creation of Powers’s protagonists: Prof. Simard and Dr. Beresford-Kroeger, along with the work of anthropologist Anna Tsing. In addition, eco-solutions concerning the tree ecosystem (i.e. bio-planning and the seed banks) coming from the scientific field and the field of literature (Powers) are examined to see if today’s progressive ideas can function in the world of the—still, to a large extent, “regressive”—structures of modernity’s legacy. I conclude by arguing that the novel shows that the Enlightenment project is not compatible with the well-being and long-term survival of both humans and non-human beings.	en
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego	pl
dc.relation.ispartofseries	Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture;12	en
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
dc.subject	contemporary American environmental fiction	en
dc.subject	Richard Powers	en
dc.subject	ecology	en
dc.subject	modernity	en
dc.subject	Enlightenment	en
dc.subject	tree ecosystem	en
dc.subject	Buddhism	en
dc.title	“Enlightenment Is a Shared Enterprise”: Tree Ecosystems and the Legacy of Modernity in Richard Powers’s The Overstory	en
dc.type	Article
dc.page.number	285-303
dc.contributor.authorAffiliation	University of Lodz	en
dc.identifier.eissn	2084-574X
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dc.contributor.authorEmail	katarzyna.ostalska@uni.lodz.pl
dc.identifier.doi	10.18778/2083-2931.12.17

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