Fungi in popular culture reconsidered: Four more-than-human entanglements

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F25%3A10505282" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/25:10505282 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=uoHvRjZQRs" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=uoHvRjZQRs</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13675494251384046" target="_blank" >10.1177/13675494251384046</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

Fungi in popular culture reconsidered: Four more-than-human entanglements

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

This article challenges the enduring binary of mycophilia and mycophobia, introduced by R. Gordon Wasson in 1957, which has long framed cultural perceptions of fungi. While the dichotomy distinguishes between cultures that embrace fungi as edible and culturally meaningful, and those that regard them with suspicion or fear, it remains rooted in anthropocentric assumptions. I argue that the conceptual opposition between mycophilia and mycophobia reflects an anthropocentric view of nature-culture entanglements by centring human affective responses and positioning fungi as mere passive projections of these emotions. The article first outlines relevant ethnomycological and posthumanist scholarship before analysing how these four entanglements reflect shifting environmental imaginaries in history and contemporary popular culture. Drawing on cross-cultural analysis of literature, film, television, and visual culture, this paper proposes a new framework for understanding human-fungal relations through the lens of more-than-human entanglements. I identify four such distinct human-fungal entanglements that transcend the mycophilia-mycophobia divide: (1) nationalised identity of the human, (2) the infantilized magic of mushrooms, (3) fungal horror and (4) environmental myco-optimism. These categories capture how fungi emerged in popular culture both as anthropomorphised, decorative elements and metaphorical instruments for reflecting human community and conflict, but also as agents that complicate human exceptionalism and invite new imaginaries of environmental sensitivity, identity and multispecies coexistence.

Název v anglickém jazyce

Fungi in popular culture reconsidered: Four more-than-human entanglements

Popis výsledku anglicky

This article challenges the enduring binary of mycophilia and mycophobia, introduced by R. Gordon Wasson in 1957, which has long framed cultural perceptions of fungi. While the dichotomy distinguishes between cultures that embrace fungi as edible and culturally meaningful, and those that regard them with suspicion or fear, it remains rooted in anthropocentric assumptions. I argue that the conceptual opposition between mycophilia and mycophobia reflects an anthropocentric view of nature-culture entanglements by centring human affective responses and positioning fungi as mere passive projections of these emotions. The article first outlines relevant ethnomycological and posthumanist scholarship before analysing how these four entanglements reflect shifting environmental imaginaries in history and contemporary popular culture. Drawing on cross-cultural analysis of literature, film, television, and visual culture, this paper proposes a new framework for understanding human-fungal relations through the lens of more-than-human entanglements. I identify four such distinct human-fungal entanglements that transcend the mycophilia-mycophobia divide: (1) nationalised identity of the human, (2) the infantilized magic of mushrooms, (3) fungal horror and (4) environmental myco-optimism. These categories capture how fungi emerged in popular culture both as anthropomorphised, decorative elements and metaphorical instruments for reflecting human community and conflict, but also as agents that complicate human exceptionalism and invite new imaginaries of environmental sensitivity, identity and multispecies coexistence.

Druh

J_imp - Článek v periodiku v databázi Web of Science

CEP obor

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OECD FORD obor

60101 - History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings)

Projekt

<a href="/cs/project/LX22NPO5101" target="_blank" >LX22NPO5101: Národní institut pro výzkum socioekonomických dopadů nemocí a systémových rizik</a><br>

Návaznosti

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Rok uplatnění

2025

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

European Journal of Cultural Studies

ISSN

1367-5494

e-ISSN

1460-3551

Svazek periodika

28

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

Neuveden

Stát vydavatele periodika

US - Spojené státy americké

Počet stran výsledku

18

Strana od-do

1-18

Kód UT WoS článku

001614262700001

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

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