Green Time: Quasi-Linear Functions in Michael Christie's Greenwood

Abstract

With the effects of climate change steadily becoming more evident, it is increasingly important to pin-point and address emerging literary responses to our changing world. Michael Christie’s Greenwood provides a unique opportunity to develop a time-centered critical approach to the ways climate change is culturally articulated. Through his arborescent, or tree-like temporal approach, Christie demonstrates the interconnected relationship between humans and trees. Drawing on alternative forms of temporal situatedness, I propose “tree-time” as a theoretical approach that more appropriately frames climate change in relation to kinship. I argue that Christie’s use of arborescent temporal frameworks within his storytelling emphasizes ecological disaster as a simultaneous issue of the past, present, and future, which inextricably links the longevity and kinship experiences of trees to the intergenerational kinship-based relationships of humans.