The Island of Missing Trees: A Challenge to Anthropocentrism Via Non-Human Narration

Abstract

This paper attempts to examine Elif Shafak’s novel The Island of Missing Trees with specific reference to challenging traditional forms of narration. I argue that Shafak’s novel challenges anthropocentric biases in narration by using a fig tree as the narrator in the story; however, the novel’s approach provides a paradigm shift in human-centric narration by acknowledging the interconnectedness and interdependence of human and nonhuman entities. Drawing upon the conceptual horizons of the new materialism, this paper uses material ecocriticism to supplement the argument. Material ecocriticism accounts for the matter being agentic, expressive, and having inherent creativity and innate meaning.  This also drew our consciousness to rethink the question of agency, interconnectedness, and narrativity. Using material-discursive practices and intra-action put forward by Karen Barad and semiotic-materiality being co-constituted by Donna Haraway, material ecocriticism affirms that matter is endowed with meaning and bears stories manifested as “storied matter,” which is discussed by Serpil Oppermann. This paper discusses how materials convey meanings and how they are the co-participators of humans in the physical world. Shafak, in her novel, provides a paradigm shift by giving voice to a fig tree as the story's co-narrator, suggesting the tree's agentic power and its interconnectedness with humans; however, this novel challenges anthropocentric biases via narration from a non-human entity.