Chapter Proposal Abstract: Part I – Medieval Seeds

   This chapter inaugurates the volume’s historical trajectory by arguing that the medieval period laid the foundational groundwork for the Western literary imagination of plants. Through a three-part analysis grounded in critical plant studies, we examine the distinct roles of the vegetal in three seminal texts. The suffering cross in The Dream of the Rood, the cultivated garden of courtly love in Chaucer’s The Parliament of Fowls, and the ethical landscape of agrarian labor in Langland’s Piers Plowman all contribute to the volume’s historical progression. Collectively, these works demonstrate that medieval literature conceived of plants as active participants in spiritual, social, and moral dramas. 

   The chapter is structured in three sections. First, it analyzes The Dream of the Rood, where the personified Cross is a sacred mediator. It blurs the line between object, being, and divine symbol. This establishes a model of vegetal agency where a tree is a narrating subject with its own history. Second, it turns to Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls, where the curated garden is an allegorical space that structures human and avian desire. Here, the chapter explores how specific trees function as agents that reflect the poem’s central debate on courtly love. Finally, the chapter investigates Piers Plowman, where the focus shifts from individual symbolic trees to the collective imperative of agriculture. In Langland’s vision, the cultivation of the land becomes a metaphor for social justice. Human virtue becomes connected to the stewardship of the plant world.

   This chapter is a crucial contribution to the volume. It challenges the modern assumption of plant passivity. The medieval period was a vital site for understanding the literary negotiation of the human-vegetal bond. 

Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. Routledge, 2012.

Marder, Michael. Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life. Columbia University Press, 2013.

Salisbury, Joyce E. The Beast Within: Animals in the Middle Ages. Routledge, 2011.