Fruiting bodies: fungal representation in narrative fiction

Abstract

This thesis explores the narrative representation of fungal ontologies and (primarily Anglospherian) human attitudes towards fungal organisms. It combines theoretical and exegetical material with a practise-led approach indebted to posthumanist thought in an attempt to construct a (non)mimetic narrative text which focalises the fungal body as subject.

In order to interrogate the representation of fungi, Jakob von Uexküll’s concept of Umwelten is utilised to examine the foundational sensory marks of the fungal environment. This thesis calls into question to what extent a verisimilar mimesis of the fungal sensory environment can be expressed, and what literary techniques can help invoke the fungal Umwelten. This interrogation is facilitated by the application of Stacy Alaimo’s concept of transcorporeality and Natalya Bekhta’s concept of we-narratives (and its subordinate relationship to Susan Lanser’s theory of communal voice) to construct a dynamic and flexible work of representation which prioritises interdependency and multiscalarity. This prioritisation results from a Deleuzo-Guattarian rhizoanalytic approach, since such an approach allows for an emphasis on the co-constitutive, multipolar agencies at work in the fungal environment. The application of the aforementioned concepts via experimental literary devices such as ergodicity and metalepsis, alongside general formal experimentation and narrative disruption, can be instrumental in entextualising these kinds of rhizomic frameworks.

This thesis further argues that such a combination of experimental devices can facilitate a kind of unnatural or non-realist narratology, as discussed by scholars such as Monica Fludernik, Marco Caracciolo, and Brian Richardson, among others. Such narratological approaches can reconfigure readers’ preconceptions towards fungal bodies, thus allowing for a reshaping of attitudes to and encounters with fungal organisms, alongside the destabilisation of hierarchies which prioritise human agencies.

Date of Award	2026
Original language	English
Supervisor	Jennifer CRAWFORD (Supervisor) & Jen WEBB (Supervisor)