Confronting the relationship between words and images in the representation of plant life in Western modernity, this interdisciplinary book examines the ways in which plants have been theorised both in contemporary plant humanities and modern thinking about plants more generally.
Focusing on the various ways that the vegetal has been represented—or hidden—during modernity, it studies how philosophical, scientific and environmental theories, as well as colonial histories, have determined these representations, as well as the ways in which these representations have themselves influenced theory.
Situating itself within the plant-humanities, a developing field of research which draws upon the environmental humanities to rectify the traditional neglect of plants as a model for thinking, it examines aesthetic representations of plant life, and philosophical and scientific thinking about the vegetal, so as to challenge traditional assumptions regarding plant intelligence, agency and communication.
Introduction: Words and Images in the Representation of Plants, Danielle Sands and Daniel Whistler
PART ONE: PLANT HI/STORIES
Chapter 1. Plant Abstraction and the Welwitschia Mirabilis: Katherine Arnold, University of Liverpool, UK
Chapter 2. Literary Botany and the Legacy of German Romanticism: Isabel Kranz, University of Vienna, Austria
Chapter 3. Lacebark and the Interior Décor of the Jamaican Slave Cottage: Steeve Buckridge, Grand Valley State University, USA
Chapter 4. On the Roots of Philosophy as a Tree of Knowledge and Using Vegetables to Think: Thomas Moynihan, University of Cambridge, UK
Chapter 5. The Transformative Power of Mama papa and Kuka kintucha: Nataly Allasi Canales, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
PART TWO: SEEING PLANTS
Chapter 6. Time-Lapse Technologies and the Temporality of Plant Life: John C. Ryan, Southern Cross University, Australia
Chapter 7. Blue So Deep: Ben Woodard, Leuphana University, Germany
Chapter 8. Margaret Mee’s Plant Portraits in the Kew Collection: Yota Batsaki, Dumbarton Oaks, USA
Chapter 9. The Ecology of Plant Iconography: Laurence Hill
Chapter 10. Extending the Botanical: Danielle Sands, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
PART THREE: PLANT FORMS
Chapter 11. The Psychology of Plant Homologies: Ulrich Stegmann, University of Aberdeen, UK
Chapter 12. Goethe and the Plant-Series: Daniel Whistler, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Chapter 13. Prototypes and Individuals: Sophie Gerber, University of Bordeaux, France
Chapter 14. Fern Times, or Vegetal Futures Past: Solvejg Nitzke, University of Dresden, Germany
Chapter 15. Algae: Joan Steigerwald, York University, Canada
PART FOUR: PLANT RELATIONS
Chapter 16. Hallucination, Sacrament, Poison: Prudence Gibson, University of New South Wales, Australia
Chapter 17. Technological Expertise in Nature and the Limits of Biomimicry: Edie Burns, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK
Chapter 18. Humboldt’s Vegetal Communities: Quentin Hiernaux, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Chapter 19. Thinking about Sex with Plants: Natania Meeker, University of Southern California, USA
PART FIVE: PLANT MONSTERS
Chapter 20. The Human Vegetable: Stella Sandford, Kingston University, UK and author of Vegetal Sex: Philosophy of Plants.
Chapter 21. "Monstrous" Plants: Caroline Harris
Chapter 22. Abnormal Plants—Abnormal Arts: Aliya Say, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Chapter 23. Vegetal Violence: Joela Jacobs, University of Arizona, USA
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