Society as a weed: Searching in ways to be with the rejected

Abstract

In the article, the author focuses on the category of weed, its discursive embedding, but also political — revolutionary — potential. She analyzes the language describing invasive plants and their representations in commercials. She also interprets selected artistic works (Chwasty by Dagna Jakubowska, Nawłoć by Cecylia Malik) to indicate new possibilities of establishing relationships with rejected plants and acknowledging their political potential. The clash of these two narratives reveals the elusiveness of vegetable Others. Weeds no longer mix in current normative categories that divide species into desirable and those that are dangerous. In the emerging rift, it becomes possible to show the emancipatory potential of the weed category, which can not only change the attitude toward the plants, but also enable social transformation, striving for the coexisting of humans with non-humans. Weeds, resistant and possessing great adaptability, can become a source of inspiration of how to survive in the uncertain contemporary world.