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  • Szerszynski - Gods of the Anthropocene - author final version

    Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Theory, Culture and Society, 34 (2-3), 2017, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Theory, Culture and Society page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/tcs on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/

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Gods of the Anthropocene: geo-spiritual formations in the earth’s new epoch

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/05/2017
<mark>Journal</mark>Theory, Culture and Society
Issue number2-3
Volume34
Number of pages23
Pages (from-to)253-275
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date10/02/17
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

In this paper I argue that we need not only to ‘decolonise’ the Anthropocene but also to ‘desecularise’ it – to be aware that in the new age of the Earth we may be coeval with gods and spirits. Drawing particularly on the work of Giles Deleuze, Felix Guattari and Georges Bataille, and using concepts from both thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, I start to develop an interdisciplinary theory of planetary spirit, and use this to speak of both the ‘laminar’ high gods of time that are being invoked to summon the story of Earth’s ongoing transformation into a canonical mythos, and the turbulent lower spirits of place which manifest particular, situated dynamics on an Earth crossed by interlocking gradients and flows of energy, value, power and entropy. I suggest that what might once have been distinct territorialised ‘cultures’ or ‘natures’ in which humans engaged in particular situated patterns of interaction with animals, spirits and other beings are increasingly being convened into a global multinatural system, what we might call a ‘combined and uneven geo-spiritual formation’.

Bibliographic note

The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Theory, Culture and Society, 34 (2-3), 2017, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Theory, Culture and Society page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/tcs on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/