“Solitary in Your Rainy Kingdom:” Postcolonial Poetic Narratives of the Southern Beech
Resumo
AbstractA member of the primordial Nothofagaceae plant family of the Southern Hemisphere, the southern beech (Nothofagus spp.) is a cool-temperate rainforest tree endemic to Australia, New Zealand and South America. Existing on the supercontinent before it began drifting apart in the Mesozoic, the tree is often described as both a Gondwana taxon and a biological relic confined to populations at relatively isolated locales. Notwithstanding the evolutionary longevity of the species, climatic disruption in coming decades will impact Nothofagus dramatically. Ecologists predict that the extent of cool-temperate rainforest will decline globally in response to anthropogenic climate change. This article examines postcolonial poetic narratives of the southern beech in the work of James K. Baxter and Ruth Dallas (New Zealand), Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral (Chile) and Mark O’Connor and Les Murray (Australia). The article suggests that “deep time” can proffer an optic for understanding climate change as rendered in literary narratives. In particular, southern beech poetry enables readers to appreciate the materiality of time as embodied in ancient trees and imagine possibilities for responding to a climate-disturbed future in dialogue with the wisdom of the arboreal world.
Referências
Works Cited
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Bennett, B. O’Connor, Mark (1945–). In: Encyclopedia of post-colonial literatures in English.
Edited by E. Benson and L. W. Conolly. London: Routledge, 2005. pp. 1167– 1168.
Berkeley M. J. On an edible fungus from Tierra del Fuego, and an allied Chilian [sic] species.
Best, E. Forest lore of the Maori: with methods of snaring, trapping and preserving birds and
In: The phytologist: a popular botanical miscellany. Edited by G. Luxford. London: John Van.
Voorst, 1844. pp. 486–487. “rats, uses of berries, roots, fern-root and forest products, with mythological notes on origins, karakia used etc”. Wellington, NZ: E.C. Keating, Government Printer, 1977. Original edition, 1942.
Catton, T. ‘A short history of the New Zealand national park system. In: National parks beyond
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Fiege. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016. pp. 68–90.
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197–222, 2009.
------------------- ‘Anthropocene time’. History and Theory, v. 57, n. 1, pp. 5–32, 2018.
Cheeseman,T.F. Manual of the New Zealand flora. Wellington, NZ: John Mackay, Government Printer, 1906.
Dallas, R. Collected poems. Dunedin, NZ: University of Otago Press, 1987.
Darwin, C. Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty’s ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836. Edited by R. Fitzroy. vol. 3. London: Henry Colburn, 1839.
Davies, J. The birth of the Anthropocene. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2016.
Deloughrey, E., J. Didur, and A. Carrigan. Introduction: a postcolonial environmental
humanities. In: Global ecologies and the environmental humanities: postcolonial
approaches. Edited by E. DeLoughrey, J. Didur and A. Carrigan. New York: Routledge, 2015.
pp. 1–32.
Deloughrey,E. and G. B. Handley. Introduction: toward an aesthetics of the Earth.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. pp. 3–41.
Derrida, J. The beast and the sovereign. Translated by G. Bennington. vol. I. Chicago, IL:
Postcolonial ecologies: literatures of the environment. Edited by E. DeLoughrey and
University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Edmundson, W. A history of the British presence in Chile: from Bloody Mary to Charles
Darwin and the decline of British influence. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Gawith, D., D. Kingston, and H. McMillan. The effects of climate change on runoff in the
Lindis and Matukituki catchments, Otago, New Zealand. Journal of Hydrology (NZ), v. 51, n.
2, pp. 121–135, 2012.
Gilderdale, B. Dallas, Ruth (1919–). In: Encyclopedia of post-colonial literatures in English.
Edited by E. Benson and L. W. Conolly. London: Routledge, 2005. pp. 331– 332.
Ginn, F., M. Bastian, D. Farrier, and J. Kidwell. ‘Introduction: unexpected encounters with
deep time’. Environmental Humanities, v. 10, n. 1, pp. 213–225, 2018.
Grano, P. L. Poems, new & old. Melbourne: Georgian House, 1945.
Green, K., J. A. Stein, and M. M. Driessen. The projected distributions of Mastacomys fuscus
and Rattus lutreolus in South-eastern Australia under a scenario of climate change:
potential for increased competition? Wildlife Research, v. 35, n. 2, pp. 113–119, 2008.
Hooker, J. The botany of the Antarctic voyage of H. M. Discovery ships Erebus and Terror
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Huggan, G., and H. Tiffin. Postcolonial ecocriticism: literature, animals, environment. London: Routledge, 2010.
James, T. ‘Pitched at the farthest edge’: religious presence and the landscape in contemporary
New Zealand poetry. In: Mapping the sacred: religion, geography and postcolonial literatures.
Edited by J. Scott and P. Simpson-Housley. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001. pp. 131–152.
Lyell, C. Principles of geology; or, the modern changes of the Earth and its inhabitants
considered as illustrative of geology. 7 ed. London: John Murray, 1847. Original edition, 1833.
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the planet one place at a time. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 2017.
Maiden, J. The useful native plants of Australia (including Tasmania). Sydney: Turner and
Henderson, 1889.
Maiden, J. The forest flora of New South Wales. vol. 3. Sydney: John Spence, 1922.
Mascia, M. Redefining civilization: historical polarities and mythologizing in Los
Conquistadores of Pablo Neruda’s Canto General. Atenea, v. 27, n. 2, pp. 137–157, 2007.
Mcdonald P. Foot-tracks in New Zealand: origins, access issues and recent developments.
2011. http://homepages.vodafone.co.nz/~pete.mcd/ft/ft.pdf.
Mcphee, J. Basin and range. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982.
Miller, D. P., and P. H. Reill, eds. Visions of empire: voyages, botany, and representations of
nature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Mistral, G. Selected poems of Gabriela Mistral. Translated by U. K. Le Guin. Albuquerque,
NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2003.
Molares, S., and A. Ladio. Mapuche perceptions and conservation of Andean Nothofagus
forests and their medicinal plants: a case study from a rural community in Patagonia, Argentina.
Biodiversity and Conservation, v. 21, n. 4, pp. 1079–1093, 2012.
Morton, T. Hyperobjects: philosophy and ecology after the end of the world. Minneapolis, MN:
University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
Murphy, P. D. The poetic politics of ecological inhabitation in Neruda’s Canto general and
Cardenal’s Cosmic canticle. In: Postcolonial green: environmental politics and world
narratives. Edited by B. Roos and A. Hunt. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press,
2010. pp. 213–228.
Murray, L. The daylight moon. North Ryde, NSW: Angus & Robertson, 1987.
Murray, L. The greenhouse vanity. Antipodes, v. 3, n. 1, p. 54, 1989.
Murray, L. A working forest. Potts Point, NSW: Duffy & Snellgrove, 1997.
Neruda, P. Canto general. Translated by J. Schmitt. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000.
Neruda, P. The poetry of Pablo Neruda. Edited by I. Stavans. New York: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 2003.
Northcott, M. Eschatology in the Anthropocene: from the chronos of deep time to the
kairos of the age of the humans. In: The Anthropocene and the global environmental crisis:
rethinking modernity in a new epoch. Edited by C. Hamilton, C. Bonneuil and F. Gemenne.
London: Routledge, 2015. pp. 100–111.
Obrien, G. Some remarks on poetry and the environment in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Poetry,
v. 211, n. 5, pp. 475–484, 2018.
O’Connor, M. Reef poems. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1976.
------------- M. The great forest. Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1989.
-------------- M. Pilbara. Melbourne: John Leonard Press, 2009.
-------------- M. Why it’s so hard to think straight about how safe nuclear power is:
Daniel A. Vogel’s arguments. 2017. http://markoconnor-australianpoet.blogspot.com.
O’Connor, M, and W. J. Lines. Overloading Australia: how governments and media dither and
deny on population. Annandale, NSW: Envirobook, 2008.
Opperrmann, S., and S. Iovino. Introduction: the environmental humanities and the challenges
of the Anthropocene. In: Environmental humanities: voices from the
Anthropocene. Edited by S. Oppermann and S. Iovino. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. pp. 1–21.
Parraguez-Vergara, E., J. Barton, and G. Raposo-Quintana. Impacts of climate change in the Andean foothills of Chile: economic and cultural vulnerability of indigenous Mapuche livelihoods. Journal of Developing Societies, v. 32, n. 4, pp. 454–483, 2016.
RACE, D., S. Mathew, M. Campbell, and K. Hampton. Understanding climate adaptation investments for communities living in desert Australia: experiences of indigenous communities. Climatic Change, v. 139, n. 3, pp. 461–475, 2016.
RAMOS-CASTILLO, A., E. Castellanos, and K. G. McLean. Indigenous peoples, local
communities and climate change mitigation. Climatic Change, v. 140, n. 1, pp. 1–4, 2017.
Rodway, L. Botanic evidence in favour of land connection between Fuegia and Tasmania
during the present floristic epoch. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania,
pp. 32–34, 1914.
Roos, B., and A. Hunt. Introduction: narratives of survival, sustainability, and justice. In:
Postcolonial green: environmental politics and world narratives. Edited by B. Roos and A. Hunt. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2010. pp. 1–13.
Salleeh, A. The Anthropocene: thinking in ‘deep geological time’ or deep libidinal time?
International Critical Thought, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 422–433, 2016.
Schmitt, J. Notes to the Canto general. In: Canto general. Edited by J. Schmitt. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press, 2000. pp. 403–413.
Thornber R, K. Literature, Asia, and the Anthropocene: possibilities for Asian studies and the
environmental humanities. Journal of Asian Studies, v. 73, n. 4, pp. 989–1000, 2014.
Veblen, T., R. Hill, and J. Read. Introduction: themes and concepts in the study of Nothofagus
forests. In: The ecology and biogeography of Nothofagus forests. Edited by T. Veblen, R. Hill
and J. Read. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996. pp.
1–10.
Wardle, J. A. The New Zealand beeches: ecology, utilisation and management.
Christchurch, NZ: New Zealand Forest Service, 1984.
Wilson, J. A companion to Pablo Neruda: evaluating Neruda’s poetry. Woodbridge, UK:
Boydell & Brewer, 2014.
Wolff, N., P. Mumby, M. Devlin, and K. Anthony. Vulnerability of the Great Barrier Reef to
climate change and local pressures. Global Change Biology, v. 24, n. 5, pp. 1978– 1991, 2017.
Worth, J., P. Harrison, G. Williamson, and G. Jordan. Whole range and regional-based
ecological niche models predict differing exposure to 21st century climate change in the key
cool temperate rainforest tree southern beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii).
Austral Ecology: A Journal of Ecology in the Southern Hemisphere, v. 40, n. 2, pp.
126–138, 2015.
Wroe, N. ‘A life in writing: Les Murray’. The Guardian 22 Nov. 2010.
Zalasiewicz, J. ‘The extraordinary strata of the Anthropocene’. In: Environmental humanities:
voices from the Anthropocene. Edited by S. Oppermann and S. Iovino. London: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2017. pp. 115–131.
Zen, E. What is deep time and why should anyone care? Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 49, n. 1, pp. 5–9, 2001.
Baxter, J. K. Collected poems of James K. Baxter. Edited by J. E. Weir. Wellington, NZ: Oxford
University Press, 1979.
Bennett, B. O’Connor, Mark (1945–). In: Encyclopedia of post-colonial literatures in English.
Edited by E. Benson and L. W. Conolly. London: Routledge, 2005. pp. 1167– 1168.
Berkeley M. J. On an edible fungus from Tierra del Fuego, and an allied Chilian [sic] species.
Best, E. Forest lore of the Maori: with methods of snaring, trapping and preserving birds and
In: The phytologist: a popular botanical miscellany. Edited by G. Luxford. London: John Van.
Voorst, 1844. pp. 486–487. “rats, uses of berries, roots, fern-root and forest products, with mythological notes on origins, karakia used etc”. Wellington, NZ: E.C. Keating, Government Printer, 1977. Original edition, 1942.
Catton, T. ‘A short history of the New Zealand national park system. In: National parks beyond
the nation: global perspectives on ‘America’s best idea’. Edited by A. Howkins, J. Orsi and M.
Fiege. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016. pp. 68–90.
Chakrabarty, D. ‘The climate of history: four theses’. Critical Inquiry, v. 35, n. 2, pp.
197–222, 2009.
------------------- ‘Anthropocene time’. History and Theory, v. 57, n. 1, pp. 5–32, 2018.
Cheeseman,T.F. Manual of the New Zealand flora. Wellington, NZ: John Mackay, Government Printer, 1906.
Dallas, R. Collected poems. Dunedin, NZ: University of Otago Press, 1987.
Darwin, C. Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty’s ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836. Edited by R. Fitzroy. vol. 3. London: Henry Colburn, 1839.
Davies, J. The birth of the Anthropocene. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2016.
Deloughrey, E., J. Didur, and A. Carrigan. Introduction: a postcolonial environmental
humanities. In: Global ecologies and the environmental humanities: postcolonial
approaches. Edited by E. DeLoughrey, J. Didur and A. Carrigan. New York: Routledge, 2015.
pp. 1–32.
Deloughrey,E. and G. B. Handley. Introduction: toward an aesthetics of the Earth.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. pp. 3–41.
Derrida, J. The beast and the sovereign. Translated by G. Bennington. vol. I. Chicago, IL:
Postcolonial ecologies: literatures of the environment. Edited by E. DeLoughrey and
University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Edmundson, W. A history of the British presence in Chile: from Bloody Mary to Charles
Darwin and the decline of British influence. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Gawith, D., D. Kingston, and H. McMillan. The effects of climate change on runoff in the
Lindis and Matukituki catchments, Otago, New Zealand. Journal of Hydrology (NZ), v. 51, n.
2, pp. 121–135, 2012.
Gilderdale, B. Dallas, Ruth (1919–). In: Encyclopedia of post-colonial literatures in English.
Edited by E. Benson and L. W. Conolly. London: Routledge, 2005. pp. 331– 332.
Ginn, F., M. Bastian, D. Farrier, and J. Kidwell. ‘Introduction: unexpected encounters with
deep time’. Environmental Humanities, v. 10, n. 1, pp. 213–225, 2018.
Grano, P. L. Poems, new & old. Melbourne: Georgian House, 1945.
Green, K., J. A. Stein, and M. M. Driessen. The projected distributions of Mastacomys fuscus
and Rattus lutreolus in South-eastern Australia under a scenario of climate change:
potential for increased competition? Wildlife Research, v. 35, n. 2, pp. 113–119, 2008.
Hooker, J. The botany of the Antarctic voyage of H. M. Discovery ships Erebus and Terror
in the years 1839–1843. London: Reeve Brothers, 1844.
Hooker, J. Introductory essay. In: The botany of the Antarctic voyage of H. M. Discovery ships,
Erebus and Terror, in the years 1853–55. II. flora Novae Zelandiae. London:
Reeve Bros, 1853. pp. 1–34.
Huggan, G., and H. Tiffin. Postcolonial ecocriticism: literature, animals, environment. London: Routledge, 2010.
James, T. ‘Pitched at the farthest edge’: religious presence and the landscape in contemporary
New Zealand poetry. In: Mapping the sacred: religion, geography and postcolonial literatures.
Edited by J. Scott and P. Simpson-Housley. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001. pp. 131–152.
Lyell, C. Principles of geology; or, the modern changes of the Earth and its inhabitants
considered as illustrative of geology. 7 ed. London: John Murray, 1847. Original edition, 1833.
Lynch, T, S. Naramore Maher, D. Wall, and O. A. Weltzien, eds. Thinking continental: writing
the planet one place at a time. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 2017.
Maiden, J. The useful native plants of Australia (including Tasmania). Sydney: Turner and
Henderson, 1889.
Maiden, J. The forest flora of New South Wales. vol. 3. Sydney: John Spence, 1922.
Mascia, M. Redefining civilization: historical polarities and mythologizing in Los
Conquistadores of Pablo Neruda’s Canto General. Atenea, v. 27, n. 2, pp. 137–157, 2007.
Mcdonald P. Foot-tracks in New Zealand: origins, access issues and recent developments.
2011. http://homepages.vodafone.co.nz/~pete.mcd/ft/ft.pdf.
Mcphee, J. Basin and range. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982.
Miller, D. P., and P. H. Reill, eds. Visions of empire: voyages, botany, and representations of
nature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Mistral, G. Selected poems of Gabriela Mistral. Translated by U. K. Le Guin. Albuquerque,
NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2003.
Molares, S., and A. Ladio. Mapuche perceptions and conservation of Andean Nothofagus
forests and their medicinal plants: a case study from a rural community in Patagonia, Argentina.
Biodiversity and Conservation, v. 21, n. 4, pp. 1079–1093, 2012.
Morton, T. Hyperobjects: philosophy and ecology after the end of the world. Minneapolis, MN:
University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
Murphy, P. D. The poetic politics of ecological inhabitation in Neruda’s Canto general and
Cardenal’s Cosmic canticle. In: Postcolonial green: environmental politics and world
narratives. Edited by B. Roos and A. Hunt. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press,
2010. pp. 213–228.
Murray, L. The daylight moon. North Ryde, NSW: Angus & Robertson, 1987.
Murray, L. The greenhouse vanity. Antipodes, v. 3, n. 1, p. 54, 1989.
Murray, L. A working forest. Potts Point, NSW: Duffy & Snellgrove, 1997.
Neruda, P. Canto general. Translated by J. Schmitt. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000.
Neruda, P. The poetry of Pablo Neruda. Edited by I. Stavans. New York: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 2003.
Northcott, M. Eschatology in the Anthropocene: from the chronos of deep time to the
kairos of the age of the humans. In: The Anthropocene and the global environmental crisis:
rethinking modernity in a new epoch. Edited by C. Hamilton, C. Bonneuil and F. Gemenne.
London: Routledge, 2015. pp. 100–111.
Obrien, G. Some remarks on poetry and the environment in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Poetry,
v. 211, n. 5, pp. 475–484, 2018.
O’Connor, M. Reef poems. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1976.
------------- M. The great forest. Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1989.
-------------- M. Pilbara. Melbourne: John Leonard Press, 2009.
-------------- M. Why it’s so hard to think straight about how safe nuclear power is:
Daniel A. Vogel’s arguments. 2017. http://markoconnor-australianpoet.blogspot.com.
O’Connor, M, and W. J. Lines. Overloading Australia: how governments and media dither and
deny on population. Annandale, NSW: Envirobook, 2008.
Opperrmann, S., and S. Iovino. Introduction: the environmental humanities and the challenges
of the Anthropocene. In: Environmental humanities: voices from the
Anthropocene. Edited by S. Oppermann and S. Iovino. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. pp. 1–21.
Parraguez-Vergara, E., J. Barton, and G. Raposo-Quintana. Impacts of climate change in the Andean foothills of Chile: economic and cultural vulnerability of indigenous Mapuche livelihoods. Journal of Developing Societies, v. 32, n. 4, pp. 454–483, 2016.
RACE, D., S. Mathew, M. Campbell, and K. Hampton. Understanding climate adaptation investments for communities living in desert Australia: experiences of indigenous communities. Climatic Change, v. 139, n. 3, pp. 461–475, 2016.
RAMOS-CASTILLO, A., E. Castellanos, and K. G. McLean. Indigenous peoples, local
communities and climate change mitigation. Climatic Change, v. 140, n. 1, pp. 1–4, 2017.
Rodway, L. Botanic evidence in favour of land connection between Fuegia and Tasmania
during the present floristic epoch. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania,
pp. 32–34, 1914.
Roos, B., and A. Hunt. Introduction: narratives of survival, sustainability, and justice. In:
Postcolonial green: environmental politics and world narratives. Edited by B. Roos and A. Hunt. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2010. pp. 1–13.
Salleeh, A. The Anthropocene: thinking in ‘deep geological time’ or deep libidinal time?
International Critical Thought, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 422–433, 2016.
Schmitt, J. Notes to the Canto general. In: Canto general. Edited by J. Schmitt. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press, 2000. pp. 403–413.
Thornber R, K. Literature, Asia, and the Anthropocene: possibilities for Asian studies and the
environmental humanities. Journal of Asian Studies, v. 73, n. 4, pp. 989–1000, 2014.
Veblen, T., R. Hill, and J. Read. Introduction: themes and concepts in the study of Nothofagus
forests. In: The ecology and biogeography of Nothofagus forests. Edited by T. Veblen, R. Hill
and J. Read. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996. pp.
1–10.
Wardle, J. A. The New Zealand beeches: ecology, utilisation and management.
Christchurch, NZ: New Zealand Forest Service, 1984.
Wilson, J. A companion to Pablo Neruda: evaluating Neruda’s poetry. Woodbridge, UK:
Boydell & Brewer, 2014.
Wolff, N., P. Mumby, M. Devlin, and K. Anthony. Vulnerability of the Great Barrier Reef to
climate change and local pressures. Global Change Biology, v. 24, n. 5, pp. 1978– 1991, 2017.
Worth, J., P. Harrison, G. Williamson, and G. Jordan. Whole range and regional-based
ecological niche models predict differing exposure to 21st century climate change in the key
cool temperate rainforest tree southern beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii).
Austral Ecology: A Journal of Ecology in the Southern Hemisphere, v. 40, n. 2, pp.
126–138, 2015.
Wroe, N. ‘A life in writing: Les Murray’. The Guardian 22 Nov. 2010.
Zalasiewicz, J. ‘The extraordinary strata of the Anthropocene’. In: Environmental humanities:
voices from the Anthropocene. Edited by S. Oppermann and S. Iovino. London: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2017. pp. 115–131.
Zen, E. What is deep time and why should anyone care? Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 49, n. 1, pp. 5–9, 2001.
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2021-07-25
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