Desynchronization in the Necrocene Age: The Case of the Maldives and Future Speculations

Abstract

Through the theoretical framework of the Necrocene, the age of death and extinction due to capitalist accumulation, this article tries to analyze and flesh out the current sociopolitical and ecological crisis of the Maldives archipelago as a symptom of what is to come on a planetary scale. It will analyze how knots of life play part in the ecology of the Maldives as a case study. Through the close reading and scrutiny of contemporary literature in the fields of Environmental Humanities, Extinction Studies and Political Ecology, this essay aims to engage with the pressing matter of the Anthropocene, its materialities and its imaginaries. Finally, it ambitiously provides further thought on how to approach the Necrocene as a global multifocal crisis, aiming to build up on the idea of Climate X.

Keywords

• anthropocene
• political ecology
• critical theory
• extinction studies
• environmental humanities
• maldives
• climate change
• postcolonialism