Tahiti and the Colonial Imagination

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Blue lagoons and white sand beaches: we are all familiar with the idyllic image associated with Tahiti. But do you see the mushroom cloud in the distance? If the island’s beauty is undeniable, the depiction of Tahiti as a tropical paradise is linked to, and makes possible, a darker side: that of two centuries of French colonial occupation and three decades of atomic testing. Where, then, does this representation come from and how was it shaped? How have settler and Indigenous actors sustained and resisted this image? In this class, we will explore the complex and multifaceted representations of Tahiti and its inhabitants through both the European and the Polynesian lenses. From 18th-century philosophical reflections to 19th-century paintings and contemporary novels written by Indigenous Francophone writers, we will discuss and critically analyze the political and environmental stakes of representation in Mā’ohi Nui/French-occupied Polynesia. Taught in French.