A Posthumanist Reading Of The Overstory

Richard Powers,one of the leading contemporary American writers,has published several full-length novels and has won many literary awards.The Overstory,Powers’ s twelfth full-length novel,was published in 2018 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2019,receiving widespread attention from scholars and the public domestically and abroad.The Overstory is not only a novel about the environmental movement,but also a novel that teaches humans to re-examine their place in the world.From a posthumanist perspective,it points out the anthropocentric limitations of traditional humanism,emphasizes the subjectivity of non-humans,and provides us with a new perspective on the relationship between humans and plants,and humans and technology.In the context of the global ecological crisis,human beings must rethink their place in the world and the meaning of their existence.Based on posthumanist theory,this paper presents the posthumanist features of The Overstory by examining Powers’ reflection of anthropocentrism and the construction of subjectivity for non-humans,as well as attempting to analyze the symbiotic relationship between humans and non-humans,so as to further explore how posthumanist ideas are reflected in The Overstory.The first chapter of the thesis begins with a brief introduction of Richard Powers and his novel The Overstory,followed by an overview of domestic and overseas studies.The second chapter of the thesis composes the emergence and development of posthumanism and elaborates on the main features of posthumanism,including the reflection of the anthropocentrism of traditional humanism,the reflection of rationalism,and the advocacy of harmonious ecology.Based on posthumanism’s reflection of traditional humanism,the third chapter explicates Powers’ deconstruction of anthropocentrism and his reflection of rationality in The Overstory.Firstly,by taking the environmental protection movement as an entry point,the author’s critical awareness of anthropocentrism is sorted out by analyzing the presentation of the conflict between man and nature in the main plots of the novel caused by anthropocentrism and exploring Powers’ attitude toward traditional humanistic narratives;secondly,this chapter explores Powers’ critical attitude toward instrumental rationality by explaining the alienation of humans and the distortion of the relationship between humans and nature caused by the excessive worship of rationality in the context of posthumanism’s criticism of rationality.The fourth chapter analyzes the changing subject-object relationship between humans and trees and the generation of intersubjectivity in the novel from a posthumanist perspective,as well as Powers’ construction of a posthuman subject,and a posthuman community co-constructed by trees and humans,from a posthumanist perspective.He advocates restoring the original,relative,and pluralistic existence of humans and the world,and aims to build a posthuman world in which humans,nature,and technology coexist in harmony.An analysis of The Overstory from a posthumanist perspective is not only informative for interpreting the text from multiple perspectives,but also has a catalytic role in promoting human beings to reflect on their own centrality,construct a harmonious relationship between humans and non-humans,and create a harmoniously developing posthuman society.