The Language of Plants : Science, Philosophy, Literature / Monica Gagliano, John C. Ryan, and Patrícia Vieira, editors.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Vieira, Patricia I., 1977- editor.

Ryan, John (John Charles) (Poet), editor.

Gagliano, Monica, 1976- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chemical ecology.

Plant ecophysiology.

Plant cell interaction.

Plant cellular signal transduction.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (348 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis, Minnesota ; London, [England] : University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

Summary:

The eighteenth-century naturalist Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) argued that plants are animate, living beings and attributed them sensation, movement, and a certain degree of mental activity, emphasizing the continuity between humankind and plant existence. Two centuries later, the understanding of plants as active and communicative organisms has reemerged in such diverse fields as plant neurobiology, philosophical posthumanism, and ecocriticism. The Language of Plants brings together groundbreaking essays from across the disciplines to foster a dialogue between the biological sciences and the humanities and to reconsider our relation to the vegetal world in new ethical and political terms. Viewing plants as sophisticated information-processing organisms with complex communication strategies (they can sense and respond to environmental cues and play an active role in their own survival and reproduction through chemical languages) radically transforms our notion of plants as unresponsive beings, ready to be instrumentally appropriated. By providing multifaceted understandings of plants, informed by the latest developments in evolutionary ecology, the philosophy of biology, and ecocritical theory, The Language of Plants promotes the freedom of imagination necessary for a new ecological awareness and more sustainable interactions with diverse life forms. Contributors: Joni Adamson, Arizona State U; Nancy E. Baker, Sarah Lawrence College; Karen L. F. Houle, U of Guelph; Luce Irigaray, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris; Erin James, U of Idaho; Richard Karban, U of California at Davis; Andre Kessler, Cornell U; Isabel Kranz, U of Vienna; Michael Marder, U of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU); Timothy Morton, Rice U; Christian Nansen, U of California at Davis; Robert A. Raguso, Cornell U; Catriona Sandilands, York U.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title

Copyright

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Part I. Science

1. The Language of Plant Communication (and How It Compares to Animal Communication)

2. Speaking in Chemical Tongues: Decoding the Language of Plant Volatiles

3. Unraveling the "Radiometric Signals" from Green Leaves

4. Breaking the Silence: Green Mudras and the Faculty of Language in Plants

Part II. Philosophy

5. To Hear Plants Speak

6. What the Vegetal World Says to Us

7. The Intelligence of Plants and the Problem of Language: A Wittgensteinian Approach

8. A Tree by Any Other Name: Language Use and Linguistic Responsibility

9. What Vegetables Are Saying about Themselves

Part III. Literature

10. The Language of Flowers in Popular Culture and Botany

11. Phytographia: Literature as Plant Writing

12. Insinuations: Thinking Plant Politics with The Day of the Triffids

13. What the Plant Says: Plant Narrators and the Ecosocial Imaginary

14. In the Key of Green? The Silent Voices of Plants in Poetry

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CONTRIBUTORS

INDEX

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4529-5411-9

OCLC:

982288007