Readings in the Anthropocene: The Environmental Humanities, German Studies, and Beyond ed. by Sabine Wilke, Japhet Johnstone (review)

Abstract

The thirteen interdisciplinary essays assembled in this volume demonstrate that transatlantic German Studies scholars are at the forefront of cultural studies research on the Anthropocene, the period in the last two hundred years in which human activity has significantly changed the earth. The contributors, all affiliated with the main German center for environmental humanities scholarship, the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, offer innovative examinations of German-language literature, film, photography, philosophy, illustrated periodicals, critical theory, and locations. The essays address how this new geological period was anticipated and represented in literature and art, and they explore the Anthropocene’s meaning for aesthetics, poetics, politics, and scientific knowledge. The interpretations thus underscore the varied ways cultural products reflect on how humans have changed the planet, and the contributors do not neglect the role of non-human agency and representations in the works they examine. The editors’ introduction, Sabine Wilke’s chapter “Planetary Praxis in the Anthropocene: An Ethics and Poetics for a New Geological Age,” and the epilogue complement one another quite nicely; it pays off to start reading the book with these three sections. There is not a lengthy overview of theory and research in the Anthropocene at the beginning of the book; concise definitions of the Anthropocene are given and the arguments of the individual chapters are previewed. If we look to the penultimate chapter, Wilke lays out the stakes the contributors have been making throughout the volume in writing about German cultural production in the Anthropocene. She urges German Studies