“Vegetal Women” in Contemporary Polish Ecofiction: Ecofeminist Readings of Dominika Słowik’s Short Stories Wegetacja and Pnącze from the Collection Samosiejki (2021)

Abstract Book of the 8th Global Conference on Women's Studies

Year: 2026

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“Vegetal Women” in Contemporary Polish Ecofiction: Ecofeminist Readings of Dominika Słowik’s Short Stories Wegetacja and Pnącze from the Collection Samosiejki (2021)

Noemi Fregara

ABSTRACT:

Women’s connection with nature, historically grounded in patriarchal thinking that positions them as subjects of oppression, has been widely explored in recent literary production. Especially in response to the contemporary environmental crisis, a wave of ecofiction has emerged, foregrounding female characters as leading figures with regard to the vegetal realm. The worlds shaped by the authors – primarily women – tend to propose two main roles for feminine protagonists: the rebel heroine, acting in alliance with nature to seek revenge against its exploitation, or the custodian of ancient knowledge and an intimate bond with the environment, rooted in mystery and mysticism.

Within this framework, Poland has proven to be a fertile field for ecoliterature, with a strong presence of women authors, such as Olga Tokarczuk, Julia Fiedorczuk, Małgorzata Lebda, Anna Adamowicz, and many others, who engage in environmental concern in their works. Among them is Dominika Słowik, a critically understudied writer, who, in her collection of short stories Samosiejki (2021), explores the relationship between human and nonhuman beings through the representation of extreme ecological conditions caused by anthropogenic environmental degradation, or bizarre interconnections, where women function as guardians of secrets related to the natural world.

Through the perspectives of ecocriticism and ecofeminism, this paper examines the short stories Wegetacja and Pnącze, which may be considered representative of the collection, as the identities of the female protagonists merge with natural elements, generating hybrid interspecies entanglements. The purpose is to read metamorphosis as a literary strategy through which women writers articulate ecological commitment. The analysis shows how these vegetal transformations destabilize the boundary between human and nonhuman, challenging the anthropocentric perspective and suggesting a new biocentric ethics.

Keywords: Słowik; Eco-literature; Poland; Women; Nature