Radiant Matters/Nuclear Imperialism

Graduate / Professional

Beginning in 1960, the French military detonated seventeen aerial and subterranean nuclear bombs in what is now the Algerian Sahara. After 1966, the French military detonated 193 more atomic and hydrogen bombs on the living inhabitants of the occupied Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. Today, more than 70 percent of French energy supply is fueled by nuclear power that depends entirely on highly radioactive uranium extraction infrastructures located predominantly in African lands formerly colonized by France. The imperial radiance of France leaves an enduring toxic legacy whose impact is not yet known. Our planet is materially haunted on a cellular and atomic level by the slow violence of nuclear imperialism that nation-states train us not to perceive. With a particular but not exclusive focus on French nuclear imperialism and its archival silencings, this seminar considers how aesthetic works—novels, poems, photographs, film, public installation, collective archiving projects—help to render the obscured and pervasive violence of nuclear imperialism knowable and contestable. Preequisite: Reading knowledge of French is strongly recommended, as several of the texts are not available in English translation. M 1:30pm-3:25pm