ABSTRACT
Anna Laurent’s immersive installation signals the turn to plant life (and extinction), which is a theme of the special issue on the Anthropocene. As a concept, the Anthropocene is distinguished by its grasp of humans as a geophysical force, shaping the planet’s biophysical systems through the combustion of fossil fuels and production of carbon, unprecedented population growth, transformation of the earth’s land surface and water flows, and mass extinction. How does the obituary function present itself in Anthropocene life writing, asks Thomas Bristow, and how will it transform existing rhetorical categories and genres, such as the elegy? Blues memoirs of artists from the Mississippi Delta are read as a record of life writing in the Anthropocene which speaks to contemporary environmental culture and the economic and racial history of Anthropogenic environmental change. Stories in the Anthropocene can teach us to be aware of, and how to interact respectfully with, the other-than-humans with whom we share our world.
