Abstract
Philipp Weiss’s five-volume debut novel Am Weltenrand sitzen die Menschen und lachen (2018) features five contrasting protagonists who navigate fractured relationships amid the damaged lifeworlds of industrial modernity, the atomizing tendencies of global capitalism and the pitfalls of ever-optimizing virtuality. This article reads Am Weltenrand as Anthropocene literature, showing how the difficulty and necessity of forming and sustaining close interpersonal and interspecies relationships are central concerns for Weiss in his exploration of the Anthropocene predicament. Across its five volumes, the pentalogy portrays vexed relationality — from missed meetings and misunderstandings to conflicts and failures to relate — as a symptom and effect of ecological crisis. In response to ecological crisis and climate breakdown, Am Weltenrand counters radical pessimism with a renewed emphasis on relationality and dialogue.
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