Author Date

2025-4

Degree Name

Department

Comparative Arts and Letters

College

Humanities

Defense Date

2025-03-07

Publication Date

2025-03-13

First Faculty Advisor

Rex Nielson

First Faculty Reader

George Handley

Honors Coordinator

Larry Peer

Keywords

environmental justice, environment, post-secular literature, Brazilian literature, healing, candomblé

Abstract

This thesis examines the approaches of two contemporary novels, The Overstory and Torto Arado, in providing pathways to environmental justice. The Overstory by Richard Powers is an American novel that provides a post-secular perspective on trees and their ability to provide answers on how to heal a wounded world. This wisdom works in the lives of individuals, and it alludes to how society at large could be impacted by the adoption of a more tree-like perspective, especially in how they view time. Torto Arado by Itamar Vieira Junior is a Brazilian novel that shows the importance of Afrodiasporic religious practices and their impact on humans’ perception and defense of the environment. It details how culture can be integrally tied to the earth and how religious practices are an essential route to take in seeking environmental justice. This thesis shows how both novels demonstrate the ability of the natural world to heal individuals and how they push for the same ability to be applied to their respective societies.