Chthulucene

Name

• Chthulucene

Origin

• Coined by scientist and theorist Donna Haraway in her book, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene in 2016.
• The term was also in use by Haraway in years prior to 2016.

Definition & Description

• Chthulucene is a neologism created by Donna Haraway and critiques the term Anthropocene to describe the Earth's current age. For Haraway, the Anthropocene does not provide the necessary narrative to break out of thought patterns and actions that are destructive to all living things. It only emphasises the supremacy of humans, their individualism and self-invented exceptionalism.
• Derived from the word Chthonic, meaning ancient, underworld and subterranean, relating specifically to the mythos of the underworld realm.
• The "-cene" suffix refers to an era.
• The chthulucene is an era that's defined by not being able to think of ourselves as disconnected from the rest of life on earth or dominant over it. We have our tentacles in everything and everything has its tentacles in us.
• The chthulucene will be an era where refugees from environmental disaster (both human and non-human) will come together.

Discussions, Talks and Panels

• "Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene: Staying with the Trouble", talk by Donna Haraway for the History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz, May 09 2014.

Publications

Books

Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Duke University Press, 2016.

See Also

Futurisms, Anthropocene, Biocene, Aerocene, Pyrocene, Genecene