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Plant Horror

Approaches to the Monstrous Vegetal in Fiction and Film

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Explores artistic representations of vegetal life that imperil human life
  • Explores the way that vegetal threats express human anxieties in art, fiction, and film
  • Features analysis of The Day of the Triffids, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Wicker Man, Swamp Thing and The Happening

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxiv
  2. Sartre and the Roots of Plant Horror

    • Randy Laist
    Pages 163-178
  3. What Do Plants Want?

    • Gary Farnell
    Pages 179-196
  4. The Sense of the Monster Plant

    • Matthew Hall
    Pages 243-255
  5. Back Matter

    Pages 257-278

About this book

This collection explores artistic representations of vegetal life that imperil human life, voicing anxieties about our relationship to other life forms with which we share the earth. From medieval manuscript illustrations to modern works of science fiction and horror, plants that manifest monstrous agency defy human control, challenge anthropocentric perception, and exact a violent vengeance for our blind and exploitative practices. Plant Horror explores how depictions of monster plants reveal concerns about the viability of our prevailing belief systems and dominant ideologies— as well as a deep-seated fear about human vulnerability in an era of deepening ecological crisis. Films discussed include The Day of the Triffids, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Wicker Man, Swamp Thing, and The Happening.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Lehigh University, Bethlehem, USA

    Dawn Keetley

  • Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, USA

    Angela Tenga

About the editors

Dawn Keetley teaches at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She has published on several recent horror TV series as well as on horror films from the 1930s to the present. She is the editor of a collection of essays on The Walking Dead (2014) and is finishing a book on 19th century Boston murderer, Jesse Pomeroy, as well as a co-edited collection on the ecogothic in 19th century America. 



Angela Tenga currently teaches courses in literature, history, and popular culture at Florida Institute of Technology. Her research interests include monster studies, representations of crime in fiction, early English literature, and the renewal and revision of the medieval in modern popular culture.




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Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Plant Horror

  • Book Subtitle: Approaches to the Monstrous Vegetal in Fiction and Film

  • Editors: Dawn Keetley, Angela Tenga

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57063-5

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-57062-8Published: 02 January 2017

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-57063-5Published: 21 December 2016

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXIV, 278

  • Number of Illustrations: 14 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Genre, Film Theory

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access