Plaidoyer pour la colère antinucléaire : le droit à l’émotion dans l’écriture de l’histoire du Centre d’Expérimentation du Pacifique

Abstract

This article argues that Tahiti’s nuclear history cannot be written without foregrounding the emotions, past and present, roused by half a century of environmental racism and official lies. Offering a feminist analysis of the sociology of knowledge production, this study questions the objectivity of the discourse favored by France and its political allies in Mā'ohi Nui and explores the limits of its alleged scientific neutrality. Contrasting this official history with Mā'ohi creative discourse, be it written, digital, or embodied, this article suggests that literature constitutes an optimal medium to foreground and process the sadness, guilt and anger associated with nuclear imperialism. Analyzing works conceived in the past five years by emerging artists such as Tevahitua Bordes, Taimana Ellacott, Karine Taea and Rehia Tepa, it asks how contemporary Mā'ohi writers and orators mobilize their creativity to explore the contrasting emotions brought by the Centre d’Expérimentation du Pacifique, ensuring that this ongoing chapter of the country’s history is not written by others in a sanitized and dedramatized fashion.