Plastic Memories of the Anthropocene

Plastic has become a ubiquitous material on planet Earth. I use Bennett’s term, thing-power, to analyse various aspects of plastic’s onto-materiality. Generally considered a single-use material, plastic is easily discarded, leaving the individualized, private space of capitalism, and becoming a noma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory 2021-07, Vol.7 (1), p.83-97
Main Author:	Clinci, Daniel
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Aesthetics anthropocene Anthropocentrism Capitalism Carbon Carbon cycle Consumer goods Consumption Cybernetics Determiners Earth Ecofeminism Exceptionalism Geology Humanism Ideology Language and Literature Studies Literary devices Literary translation Logic materialism Memory Metabolism Morality Narrative techniques Philosophy plastic Plastic pollution posthumanism Studies of Literature vitalism
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Summary:	Plastic has become a ubiquitous material on planet Earth. I use Bennett’s term, thing-power, to analyse various aspects of plastic’s onto-materiality. Generally considered a single-use material, plastic is easily discarded, leaving the individualized, private space of capitalism, and becoming a nomad, in the terms of Deleuze and Guattari, thus travelling through a smooth space. Then, plastic enters a symbiotic relationship with all biotic and abiotic bodies, becoming endo-plastic. As a geological layer, it becomes a “vibrant” memory of the nexus between capitalism and humanism, revealing its full political potential. Plastic is a witness, by-product and determinant of the Anthropocene, and its memory tells the political and ideological geostory (Donna J. Haraway) of human exceptionalism. Becoming-plastic is one way of overcoming anthropocentrism: not just by advocating for “post-humanism,” but by advocating for “posthum-ism,” even if this means “embracing human extinction” (Patricia MacCormack).
ISSN:	2457-8827 2457-8827