Spectrality and Survivance

Marija Grech is a lecturer in English Literature and Critical Theory at the University of Malta, and a visiting fellow with the School of Humanities & Languages at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

• Introduction: Spectral Present, Specular FuturesChapter 1: Preservation and Stasis: The Anthropocene Echo-ChamberChapter 2: Lithic Textuality: Reading and Writing Beyond Life and the HumanChapter 3: Entangled Survivance: Material Inscriptions of OthernessChapter 4: Re-Reading the Nuclear Trace: Diffractive Paradigms for the AnthropoceneConclusion: Rewriting the AnthroproceneBibliographyAbout the Author

Combining materialist and Derridean approaches, Grech’s book is a tour de force when it comes to thinking the Anthropocene away from the standard debates and arguments that continue to perpetuate human exceptionalism. This exceptionalism is powerfully challenged when Grech argues that the constructed boundaries between the human and nonhuman, living and non-living, organic and inorganic, biological and discursive are entangled. In making this argument, Grech, at the same time, convincingly and carefully critiques the uninformed dismissals of Derrida’s work as simply a cultural system of linguistic and language references that exist outside the material domain. Accessible, clear and beautifully written this book is a must-read.