“It's a World of Trees, Where Humans Have Just Arrived” : a Comparative Study on Contemporary Narratives About Trees

Details

Supervisors

De Bruyn, Ben

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en langues et lettres modernes, orientation générale

Abstract

enThe anthropogenic climate crisis is partly due to humanity’s perception of nature. The Western philosophy and Descartes’ influence have created a nature/culture boundary that separates humans from the other living beings, when in reality, humanity and other creatures (animal and plant) are clearly interdependent. This nature/culture boundary is partly the cause of the destructive attitude humans take with regard to nature. Deforestation, for example, is partly the product of this lack of bond between humans and trees; trees are seen as passive, when in fact they are very complex beings. To correct this misperception of trees and nature, humanity urgently needs a new narrative that can show the interconnectedness of humans with nature and make humans understand that other creatures have as much right as they have to live on earth. This master thesis studies how a chosen corpus of three books tries to demonstrate the interconnection between trees and humans and to promote a different relationship with trees, not solely based on exploitation. The analysis pays particular attention to the literary techniques used by these three authors to show that trees and humans are actually interconnected. The first chapter analyses “The Hidden Life of Trees” (2016) by Peter Wohlleben and covers the debate on anthropomorphism. The second chapter analyses “The Overstory” (2019) by Richard Powers and how the author interconnects the human characters with trees in the narrative. The third chapter analyses how capitalism decimates trees and Native Americans in “Barkskins” (2017) by Annie Proulx. The last chapter examines how the three books deal with the planetary turn and how posthumanist they are.