Narrating the More-Than-Human World: Ecological Ethics in the Fiction of Richard Powers

Abstract

In the 21st postmodern era, climate change, environmental degradation, increasing sea level, depletion of the ozone layer has taken an important and debatable place at every platform, may it be national or international. It has forced humans to rethink the human and humanity’s relationship with nature. The fiction of Richard Powers' has offered a powerful literary exploration of what scholar’s call “more-than-human world” a mirror that accepts the presence and existence of non-human life like animals, plants and ecosystem and their interconnected existence. This paper examines how Powers' novels Gain, The Ecomaker and The Overstory presents an ecological vision that criticises and challenges anthropocentric world views. In his fictional world Powers constructs stories in which nature is not only a passive backdrop but an active and everlasting member in constructing the existence of humans. By giving attention to the lives of trees and the people in The Overstory, Powers encourages readers to rethink the way they value the natural world. Similarly, Gain explores the rise of a powerful corporation which represents how the life of a common man is affected by industrial pollution. In The Echomaker the exploration of memory and identity following an accident raises a question about human consciousness and its connection with the natural world. By analysing these texts through the lens of ecocritical theory these works challenge the dominant human centered approach and demonstrates that Powers' fiction not only expands the aesthetic possibility but contributes to environmental conservation also.