“But the storm, this storm, has no apology”: Extraction, Ecophobia, and the Ecogothic in Linda Hogan’s Power

Abstract

Examining Linda Hogan’s Power“ in the context of the ecogothic, a mode emphasizing the Western world’s desire to subdue and dominate the natural world, this paper contextualizes and analyzes changes imposed upon the natural world as the result of ecophobia. Hogan’s young female protagonist Omishto—a member of the fictional Taiga tribe—struggles to come to terms with these realities. At the same time, she learns the danger of disclosing information to Euro-American institutions, specifically courts of law. In this ecophobic world, the importance (and lack) of credence given to Indigenous testimonies and the danger of relying on static, stereotypical images of “eco- Indians” as models of environmental responsibility are brought to the fore. This article also argues that Indigenous literature is often treated in the same fashion in scholarship. In such readings, Indigenous-authored texts are expected to function as resources from which knowledge and lessons can be gleaned. The implementation of the ecogothic mode in Power“, however, thwarts such efforts on both an intratextual and an extratextual level.