Interpreting The Overstory From The Perspective Of Ecocriticism

In April 2019,Richard Powers’ s latest work The Overstory won the 103 rd Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.The novel is a practical guide that transcends the realm of fiction,with thematic concerns that have long been ignored.Against the backdrop of growing ecological crisis,the novel’s winning of Pulitzer seems to shed light on the elevation of ecological novels.This thesis aims to analyze the relationship between The Overstory and ecocriticism,delving into four questions formulated in the light of Aldo Leopold’s land ethic,narrative agency of material ecocriticism and Lu Shuyuan’s spiritual ecology: What does Powers really impress the critics with? How does Powers’ s writing embody concepts of ecocriticism in this fiction? What is the relationship between man’s psychological well-being and nature? What role does The Overstory play in achieving Eco-protection as a literary work? Chapter One makes an overall literature review of Powers,his works and the theories that this thesis applies.Chapter Two discusses the performance of Powers’ s anti-anthropocentric stance.In Chapter Three,the focus of this thesis turns to Powers’ s efforts to reconcile the narrative agency of human and non-humans.Chapter Four explores Powers’ s artistic and social aspirations from the scope of spiritual ecology.Chapter Five concludes the answers for the four questions raised in the beginning and discusses the limitations of this thesis.The thesis argues that The Overstory has a rather close relationship with ecocriticism,as is evinced in its ecological ends that can be inferred from the luxuriant green elements in the text and paratext and the dramatization of the harmonious relationship between trees and protagonists,in the anthropomorphized trees and pytomorphized human—highly suggestive of the similarities between trees and humans,in the attention paid to human spiritual ecology whose health is greatly related to the balance of nature,and finally,in the ambition of Powers that hopes to change people’s mind to reach the aim of protecting nature.The thesis is conducive to explorations that promise theoretical values in its revealing of ecological features that Powers incredibly designed in The Overstory,and also for its tentatively theoretical innovation of raising the term “phytomorphism” which can be complementary to anthropomorphism.Besides,the study is imbued with pragmatical meanings for its moral guidance in helping the readers reach a deeper understanding of the ecological value of The Overstory,which might contribute to the transformation of the ways of treating nature in the public.