Date: Mar. 15, 2022
Time: 4 a.m.
Location: McMillan Theater
Details:
During three decades (1966-1996), France detonated 193 nuclear tests in the French Polynesia, showering the archipelago with radioactive toxins. A recent study has concluded that approximately 110,000 people in French Polynesia were affected by the radioactive fallout. The radiation, between 2 and 10 times higher than previous estimates, contributed to the contamination of the Moana (the pan-pacific Indigenous term for ocean) and to the rainwater that served as drinking water for much of the population. As a result, tens of thousands of people have contracted various forms of cancer. This talk explores French Polynesian literary engagements with this toxic period in their history. Whether quite literally, through depictions of characters as victims of nuclear testing and radioactive contamination, or in a more obscure sense, with characters navigating a completely changed land (and sea) scape due to the socioeconomic repercussions of the nuclear testing period, French Polynesian authors demonstrate that the archipelago has been irreversibly impacted by nuclear colonialism. This talk will offer insights into an understudied area of decolonial ecological literature of French-expression, a literature that dares to seek justice by narrating nuclear colonialism and the accompanying environmental racism.
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