Antropomorfizacja roślin w Inteligencji kwiatów Maurycego Maeterlincka
Anthropomorphization of plants in The Intelligence of Flowers by Maurice Maeterlinck

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on The Intelligence of Flowers (1907) by Maurice Maeterlinck, a botanical essay that is both scientific and literary. The author analyzes the way in which the Belgian writer presents plants: their functioning and their faculties which clearly prove that they are endowed with intelligence, understood as the ability to solve problems and adapt to the environment. The anthropomorphization of plants and the numerous analogies between their vital situation and that of humans serve to express Maeterlinck’s conception of the world: a world without generic hierarchies where all living organisms are equal. They also allow him to talk about plants with tenderness and praise about their genius which fascinates him. The writer rejects the anthropocentric perspective, dominant in his time, and with his essay anticipates current knowledge about plants, confirmed by neurobiological research, as well as the ecocritical approach that has animated literary studies since the 90s of the 20th century.

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