The Intelligence of Plants: A New Narrative? Notes on a Contemporary Cultural Phenomenon

ABSTRACT

This article explores the development of a new vision in French media productions of plants as beings with intelligence and sentience. The first part of the article presents data on the increase in the number of media about plants and, particularly, plant intelligence and sentience, in France, between 2014 and 2020. A multimedia corpus composed of books, magazine issues and documentaries is the basis for this assessment. The second part proposes an observation of a part of this corpus, aiming at identifying some specific visual and textual devices related to the staging of the intelligence and sensitivity of plants. The third part proposes some theoretical observations concerning the semantic work involved in the new narrative of plant intelligence and sensibility and its implications for the Western vision of plants. The article shows this new narrative has challenged Western naturalism, as defined by Descola, and shaken its ontological structure.

KEYWORDS:

• Plants
• vegetal
• intelligence
• sensitivity
• media
• naturalism
• discourse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The focus is on the quantitative evolution of books and press articles. Complete information on data and treatment is available from the corresponding author. A complete quantitative survey of data on documentaries and exhibitions has yet to be carried out.

2 Credits: covers by kind concession of the copyright's owners. In particular: E. Kohn, Comment pensent les forets, Zones sensibles, 2017, cover; Peter Wohlleben, La vie secrète des arbres, © Les Arènes, 2017; E. Haskell, Ecoute l'arbre et la feuille, © Flammarion, 2017.

3 The book has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide: 700,000 copies in Germany and 250,000 copies in France (as much as the book that received the Goncourt prize). https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Vie_secr%C3%A8te_des_arbres

4 Credits: covers by kind concession of the copyright's owners. In particular: A. Mancuso & A. Viola, L'intelligence des plantes, éditions Albin Michel, 2018; F. Daugey, L'intelligence des plantes, Ulmer, 2018; D. Van Cauwelaert, Les émotions cachées des plantes, Plon, 2018; T. Mícek, Le monde fantastique des arbres, Place des Victoires, 2018.

5 Bordron (2011) connects these three levels to the three types of signs proposed by the philosopher Peirce in his semiotic theory, index, icon and symbol.