Online Talk: "Pattern as Narrative: The Structure of Botanical Stories"

Speakers: Elin McCready (Professor, AGU) and Elis Ottosson (U. Gothenburg / HDK Steneby)

How can one overcome the problem of projecting human perspectives onto the nonhuman? Doing so is a key element in addressing some problems of the Anthropocene, and for an understanding of other beings capable of respecting them on their own terms. We use narrative to consider this question, and take as starting point Le Guin’s (1988) Carrier Bag theory of fiction, which rejects action and conflict as the basis of story, instead centering it around daily life and repetitive activity (cf. also Ukeles 1971). Most species in the biosphere live in ways irrelevant to conflict and resolution, particularly plants, most of which need not take life at all for survival. We conclude that, for a non-anthropomorphic understanding of the lives of plants via narrative, it is necessary to include cyclical patterned structures.   

Understanding the world through…