Dangerous Resonances in Charlotte McConaghy’s Once There Were Wolves

Abstract

Charlotte McConaghy’s novel Once There Were Wolves tells the story of the reintroduction of wolves in the Scottish Highlands, thereby bringing the concept of rewilding – an innovative form of biodiversity conservation – into fiction. This novel shows how, within the paradigm of biodiversity, ‘plant perspectives’ and the search for a language of resonance must be considered in the broader ecological context, alongside the wolves. The article analyses how the novel highlights the importance of resonance through the protagonist Inti Flynn’s special relationship with plants, while also critically reflecting on this concept by depicting a resonance catastrophe – arising from Inti’s overly symbiotic relationship with her sister and the wolves. The conservation effort only succeeds, and the trees begin to grow over the bare hills, when Inti and the initially opposed local sheep farmers come together. Thus, this article argues, the novel demonstrates that contemporary conservation issues require a critical discussion of both the lack and excess of resonance in our relations to nature, fostering a mutual transformation of both ecologists and the local population in their relationships with each other and with nature.