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Dieses Werk steht unter der Lizenz Creative Commons Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 4.0 International.
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What’s a Colony? Scattered Speculations on Invasion Science, Eco-Narrative, and the Misuses of Alien Species
ABSTRACT This chapter considers what a postcolonial–ecocritical approach might have to add to the ongoing debate over native versus invasive species, looking in particular at the function of eco-narrative as a template for empathy or cooperation across the species divide. Two examples will be drawn upon. The first, Germaine Greer’s 2013 memoir White Beech, tells the story of Greer’s attempt to restore a plot of land in the Queensland rainforest by adjusting the ratio of native to invasive species. The second is my own account of the recent travails surrounding a ‘native invasive’ species, the spruce bark beetle, which has colonized large areas of old-growth European forests, with destructive consequences in some cases but generally mixed ecological results. In both examples, I will move between scientific and popular understandings of the human/non-human interactions involved, asking what is to be gained—but also risked—by seeing biological processes in cultural terms.
KEYWORDS colonization, eco-narrative, invasion science, invasive species, native species
