Abstract
Plants are habitually viewed as mute living beings, existing without the possibility of self-expression. In this essay, I suggest that plants not only silently tell us something (indeed, a great deal) about themselves and the world, but also that they tell stories, rendering witness accounts about life and death, light and darkness, middles, beginnings, and ends. After correlating vegetal storytelling with the ancient muthos that survives the onslaught of logos, I concentrate on three levels of this storytelling: (1) the story of plant life; (2) stories of plant communities; and (3) stories of individual plants. Jointly, these three levels comprise the philosophy of stories plants tell.
Recommended Citation
Marder, Michael
(2023)
"A Philosophy of Stories Plants Tell,"
Narrative Culture: Vol. 10:
Iss.
2, Article 3.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/narrative/vol10/iss2/3