The Green Thread

Dialogues with the Vegetal World

Author: Monica Gagliano, John Charles Ryan, Tom Bristow, Pansy Duncan, Andrew Howe, Michael Marder, Laurent Mignonneau, Guinevere Narraway, Alan Read and Patrícia Vieira Series: Ecocritical Theory and Practice

The Green Thread is an interdisciplinary collection of essays that takes the risk of departing from the long-standing human perception of plants— including autonomy, agency, and consciousness—to explore new territories where the re-conceptualization of vegetable beings as active agents in social and cultural environments becomes possible.

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Summary

Description

The Green Thread: Dialogues with the Vegetal World is an interdisciplinary collection of essays in the emerging field of Plant Studies. The volume is the first of its kind to bring together a dynamic body of scholarship that shares a critique of long-standing human perceptions of plants as lacking autonomy, agency, consciousness, and, intelligence.The leading metaphor of the book—“the green thread”, echoing poet Dylan Thomas’ phrase “the green fuse”—carries multiple meanings. On a more apparent level, “the green thread” is what weaves together the diverse approaches of this collection: an interest in the vegetal that goes beyond single disciplines and specialist discourses, and one that not only encourages but necessitates interdisciplinary and even interspecies dialogue. On another level, “the green thread” links creative and historical productions to the materiality of the vegetal—a reality reflecting our symbiosis with oxygen-producing beings. In short, The Green Thread refers to the conversations about plants that transcend strict disciplinary boundaries as well as to the possibility of dialogue with plants.

Critic Reviews

“"Over fifty years ago Rachel Carson wrote in Silent Spring that our "attitude toward plants is a singularly narrow one." This book offers readers in the humanities and sciences a more broadly conceived and sophisticated interdisciplinary conversation about plants. More significantly, the book reinvigorates a human dialogue with plants that has been displaced by modern cultural attitudes toward the vegetal world."”

“Over fifty years ago Rachel Carson wrote in Silent Spring that our “attitude toward plants is a singularly narrow one.” This book offers readers in the humanities and sciences a more broadly conceived and sophisticated interdisciplinary conversation about plants. More significantly, the book reinvigorates a human dialogue with plants that has been displaced by modern cultural attitudes toward the vegetal world.” -- Mark C. Long, Keene State College

About the Author

Patrícia Vieira is associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese, comparative literature, and film and media studies at Georgetown University.Monica Gagliano is research associate professor of evolutionary ecology at the University of Western Australia.John Charles Ryan is postdoctoral research fellow in communications and arts at Edith Cowan University.

More on this Book

The Green Thread: Dialogues with the Vegetal World is an interdisciplinary collection of essays in the emerging field of Plant Studies. The volume is the first of its kind to bring together a dynamic body of scholarship that shares a critique of long-standing human perceptions of plants as lacking autonomy, agency, consciousness, and, intelligence. The leading metaphor of the book-"the green thread", echoing poet Dylan Thomas' phrase "the green fuse"-carries multiple meanings. On a more apparent level, "the green thread" is what weaves together the diverse approaches of this collection: an interest in the vegetal that goes beyond single disciplines and specialist discourses, and one that not only encourages but necessitates interdisciplinary and even interspecies dialogue. On another level, "the green thread" links creative and historical productions to the materiality of the vegetal-a reality reflecting our symbiosis with oxygen-producing beings. In short, The Green Thread refers to the conversations about plants that transcend strict disciplinary boundaries as well as to the possibility of dialogue with plants.