Cauliflowers and Plane Trees: Cultivated Vegetal Matter in Le méridien de Greenwich (1979) by Jean Echenoz

This article studies cultivated vegetal matter in Jean Echenoz’s novel Le Méridien de Greenwich (1979), focusing on cauliflowers and plane trees and how they interrelate with other organisms, and more specifically humans. Considering the novel’s postmodern aesthetic, it examines the ability of vegetality to initiate meaning and narratives, and its subsequent semiotization by humans. It outlines the impact of vegetal matter on a literary representation that is often confined to its self-reflexive and ironical aspects, and highlights the critical perspective offered by contemporary French novels on the culturization of nature.