“Ecriture Féminine” and Ecoethics in Richard Powers’ The Overstory

Abstract

This paper explores the entanglement between the ecological issues and the feminist questions in Richard Powers’ The Overstory (2018). The predominant focus of the novel is unquestionably ecology and the criticism of anthropocentrism; however, the systematic presence of the feminist ethos creates an adjacent field of inquiry worthy of consideration. Indeed, the issue of gender discrimination in the academy, female empowerment, and the foregrounding of ecofeminism and feminist care ethics collaborate to constitute a nested web of feminist concerns, spelling the script of “écriture féminine.” The female characters feature as the discursive tools for several revisions, which is synchronous with the narrative’s revision of the concept of the masculinist anthropocene as a damaging view of the world. Instead, the feminist undertones of the narrative reinforce the view of nature as a nonhuman ‘other,’ deserving full entitlement to moral consideration rather than simply being backstage for Man’s actions in the world.