'A movie about flowers?' Notes on the ecological turn in adaptation studies.

This article critically examines the recent ecological turn in adaptation studies, focusing on the intersection between adaptation in evolutionary biology and adaptation in literature, film, and media. It argues that many adaptation scholars rely heavily on Richard Dawkins' sociobiological framework, particularly his concept of memes from *The Selfish Gene* (1976), without sufficiently historicizing or questioning the cultural values embedded in these biological metaphors. Using the film *Adaptation* (2002) by Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze as a key case study, the article demonstrates how the film's evolutionary themes are intertwined with heteronormative and capitalist narratives of productivity, reproduction, and growth, challenging the assumption that biological adaptation models can be straightforwardly applied to cultural adaptation. The author calls for adaptation studies to critically unpack how biological paradigms are mobilized in cultural texts to naturalize specific social norms, advocating for a historically and ecocritically informed approach that recognizes the contingent and value-laden nature of these frameworks.