Trees and the Stories They Tell: Botanical Animacy in Literature

George Handley
Brigham Young University

by George Handley

This paper will explore the scientific basis for tree communication and compare how that science is communicated and debated in the scientific realm with how it is represented in Richard Powers’s recent novel, The Overstory. The aim of the paper is to make a postsecular argument for animacy that finds common ground between secular science, arts, and religion.