From Tree Talk to Forest Thinking: Richard Powersâs The Overstory and Annie Proulxâs Barkskins

Susan McHugh

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Chapter 5 From Tree Talk to Forest Thinking: Richard Powersâs The Overstory and Annie Proulxâs Barkskins

In: Plant Poetics

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Susan McHugh

Susan McHugh
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 102â122

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004733749_007

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To challenge the assumption that fictional plants are antithetical to plant science, this essay compares two novelsâRichard Powersâs The Overstory (2018) and Annie Proulxâs Barkskins (2016)âto explore how literary concepts like focalization, voice, and anthropomorphism can help readers understand how growing evidence of plant thinking is mutually informing advances in aesthetic and ecological practices. Further, by contrasting the authorsâ representations of Native Americans in the Great North Woods, which is the central location of both stories, I argue that these fictions together model inquiry into how the recognition that plants are communicative and cognitive beings calls for human action.

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Plant Poetics

Literary Forms and Functions of the Vegetal

Series:Â Critical Plant Studies, Volume: 10

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004733749

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 25 Apr 2025

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies
  - Literary Theory
- Philosophy
  - Social & Political Philosophy

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Chapter 5 From Tree Talk to Forest Thinking: Richard Powersâs The Overstory and Annie Proulxâs Barkskins

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Plant Poetics

Literary Forms and Functions of the Vegetal

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Chapter 5 From Tree Talk to Forest Thinking: Richard Powersâs The Overstory and Annie Proulxâs Barkskins