The Deep Time of Life: Narrative Speed as Expression of Arboreal Time Scales in Richard Powersâs The Overstory

Eva Axer

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Chapter 4 The Deep Time of Life: Narrative Speed as Expression of Arboreal Time Scales in Richard Powersâs The Overstory

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Eva Axer

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Page Range:: 83â101

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004733749_006

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On the basis of close readings, I show that Richard Powers experiments with the change of speed in Genetteâs narratological sense in his novel The Overstory. This brings the discrepancy in human and arboreal lifespans and timescales to the fore, even though the book does not cover an extraordinary long period of time. To increase the narrative speed, Powers makes use of analepses and prolepses in unconventional ways. These strategies are informed by the two leitmotifs of the book: a time-lapse image of a branching tree and a treeâs annual rings. In light of the ecological crises of the present, Powers thus expands the possibilities of fiction to explore divergent temporal modalities and to depict phenomena that are beyond human comprehension in terms of speed and scale.

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Plant Poetics

Literary Forms and Functions of the Vegetal

ä¸ç¼ï¼ Critical Plant Studies, å·ï¼ 10

ISBN:: 9789004733749

åºçç¤¾:: Brill

å°å·åºçæ¥æ:: 25 Apr 2025

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Chapter 4 The Deep Time of Life: Narrative Speed as Expression of Arboreal Time Scales in Richard Powersâs The Overstory

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Plant Poetics

Literary Forms and Functions of the Vegetal

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Chapter 4 The Deep Time of Life: Narrative Speed as Expression of Arboreal Time Scales in Richard Powersâs The Overstory

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