Becoming a Guava: Plant Thinking and Border-Transcending in Kiran Desai's Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
學年 114
學期 2
發表日期 2026-06-29
作品名稱 Becoming a Guava: Plant Thinking and Border-Transcending in Kiran Desai's Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
作品名稱（其他語言）
著者 Chiou-Rung Deng
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會議名稱 26th Asian Studies Association of Australia Biennial Conference
會議地點 Geelong, Australia
摘要 This paper examines Kiran Desai's Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard through the lens of recent developments in plant studies, arguing that the novel reimagines human–nonhuman relations by foregrounding plant life as a model of alternative thinking and being. Building on Michael Marder's conception of the plant's intelligence without logic or telos, Jeffrey Nealon's emphasis on horizontal connections resonant with Deleuze's “rhizome,” and Emanuele Coccia's notion of “immersion,” this project highlights the ways Desai's narrative unsettles conventional hierarchies between the human and the non-human. Sampath’s retreat from the town to the guava orchard stages a shift from metaphysical, dialectical modes of thought toward “plant thinking,” characterized by permeability, interconnection, and a purposeless freedom. The orchard setting becomes a space where subject–object and exploitative relations give way to a more porous, horizontal mode of existence, enabling forms of cohabitation that extend to monkeys, trees, and the environment alike. Sampath's eventual transformation into a guava, carried off into the distance, radicalizes this mode of immersion and decentering, reconfiguring the borders of identity, agency, and life itself. By tracing the emergence of plant thinking in Desai's novel, this paper contributes to ongoing conversations on Asian literary reimaginings of human–environmental relations in a shifting world, offering a perspective that moves beyond anthropocentric paradigms.
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語言 en
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會議性質 國際
校內研討會地點 無
研討會時間 20260629~20260702
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國別 AUS
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機構典藏連結 ( http://tkuir.lib.tku.edu.tw:8080/dspace/handle/987654321/129736 )