A Review of Symbiotic Posthumanist Ecologies in Western Literature, Philosophy and Art: Towards Theory and Practice, by Peggy Karpouzou and Nikoleta Zampaki (eds.).

Symbiosis is not only a common phenomenon among various organisms in nature, but also frequently observed in the humanities and academic circles. What we now refer to as “interdisciplinarity” is essentially a symbiotic relationship among different disciplines. Confronted with this “fact”, we should pay more attention to “value”: the value of symbiosis between two organisms lies in their mutual enhancement. When two academic fields enter into a symbiotic relationship, what positive results might arise? The 2023 book Symbiotic Posthumanist Ecologies in Western Literature, Philosophy and Art: Towards Theory and Practice, co-edited by Peggy Karpouzou and Nikoleta Zampaki, provides us with a powerful academic case: the symbiosis of Posthumanism and Environmental Humanities has yielded positive theoretical results, namely Symbiotic Posthumanist Ecologies. This emerging ecology deepens, not only the ecological connotations of humanism, but also the posthumanist implications within environmental humanities. It leads us to shift our academic focus from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene, and on the basis of revealing the fact that symbiosis is a vital ecological process of the planet. It advocates for the value orientation of ecological topics and also posits that there should be a harmonious symbiosis (or co-existence) between humans and nature, as well as among different civilizations. This is precisely where the value of the book lies.