Plant and Animal Metaphors as Signs of Proto-Ecofeminism

The book analyses the plant and animal metaphors employed by four different female writers who all wrote, published and lived in different eras/ literary epochs and countries. We have chosen to discuss the perpetuation of this special imagery throughout the history of literature from Charlotte Brontë and Beatrix Potter to Karen Blixen and Ana Blandiana. The works chosen for this survey underline the evolution of the usage of plant and animal imagery throughout the world literature during almost 130 years: Jane Eyre (1847), The Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck (1908) and The Tale of Johnny the Town-Mouse (1918), Out of Africa (1937) and Arpagic’s poems (1980-88). Our analysis of plant and animal metaphors is meant to contribute to the opening of new interpretations of literature through the prism of biodiversity. We used animality studies to illustrate how humans interpret animals and plants, and these interpretations help humans understand themselves and the Others. This is the reason for which the present book liaises animality studies with feminist and ecofeminist studies because animals and plants are linked with women, with children, with people of colour, with the colonized – generally those defined as the “Other” – and this connection makes these categories feel oppressed and marginalized.