Sustainability, Civilization and Women- An Environmental Study of The Overstory by Richard Powers

Nikita Gandotra¹ & Dr Shuchi Agrawal²

¹PhD scholar, Amity Institute of English Studies and Research, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. Email: nikitagandotra55@gmail.com

²Associate Professor, Amity Institute of English Studies and Research, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. Email: sagarwal2@amity.edu

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s10n6

Abstract

The Overstory by Richard Powers is a reflection of the environmental issues gripping the human civilization once ozone depletion and global warming loomed into focus. Global warming and an intensive exploration of environmental effects on the human civilization have gained significance over time and they persist to be eminent topic of debate in both local and global context. While Emerson and Thoreau pay serious literary attention in nineteenth-century America; Robert Frost engages with ecology in the twentieth century. Likewise contemporary American literature reflects the conflicts that surfaced due to the industrial and technological moves affecting the environment. Richard Powers’ novel forms an example how individuals and communities negotiate with these phenomena. There is nothing like Wordsworth and the English romanticists in fiction like The Overstory; there is nevertheless a romantic idealism in the characters whose engagement and commitment to environment and trees is portrayed by Powers. His reference to the Chipko movement is a gesture towards radical practical need and towards human commitment. Powers lets his character Mother N to affirm the strength of the Chipko women in India and the Kayapo Indians in Brazil, who stood up for trees. This strongly underlines the author’s intention:  women are central to civilization and sustainability. The paper aims to establish a relationship between sustainability and trees which symbolize life, and women who play a crucial role in sustaining both nature and civilization, in a sense, an ecofeminism.

Keywords: Richard Powers, The Overstory, Sustainability, Trees, Ecofeminism.