ECOLOGICAL GRIEF AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEMORY IN RICHARD POWERS’ THE OVERSTORY

Abstract

The current study examines the representation of ecological grief and environmental memory in Richard Powers’ The Overstory  (2018) from an ecocritical perspective. The research aims to analyse the portrayal of characters’ emotions in relation to environmental degradation and to examine the significance of forests as living archives of ecological memory. Within the framework of a qualitative research design, the paper provides a close reading of the experiences of key characters, including Patricia Westerford, Olivia Vandergriff, Douglas Pavlicek, Nicholas Hoel, and Winston Ma. The findings show that ecological grief in The Overstory can be viewed as an individual and collective reaction to biodiversity loss, deforestation, and ecological destruction that turns the environmental awareness of the characters into an ethical position and their activism. At the same time, the author presents forests as dynamic ecological communities that conserve biological, historical, and cultural memory in terms of an interrelated communication and survival system. In other words, Richard Powers endows trees with consciousness in order to promote an ecocentric worldview rather than an anthropocentric one. Moreover, the results show that environmental activism in the novel is understood as the practical manifestation of ecological grief and environmental memory, thereby implying a moral responsibility to preserve endangered ecosystems not only for us but also for future generations. In conclusion, the present study reveals that The Overstory makes a valuable contribution to the modern ecocritical discussion by demonstrating the role of literature in fostering ecological awareness and ethics.