« Une catastrophe inévitable qui n’a pas eu lieu » : l’éruption de la Soufrière en 1976 dans Basses terres d’Estelle-Sarah Bulle

The paper interrogates the socio-cultural implications of the 1976 eruption of the Soufrière volcano in Guadeloupe and its representation in Estelle-Sarah Bulle’s novel Basses terres (2024). Employing a socio-critical framework informed by Decolonial Ecocriticism, the paper reconceptualizes disaster by foregrounding the anticipatory anxiety and collective memory associated with the eruption, which contrast with the official disaster narrative. It also examines the role of environmental degradation and neocolonial dynamics in perpetuating socio-political fractures within Guadeloupean society. Ultimately, the analysis argues that the true disaster lies not in the volcanic activity itself but in its capacity to reveal and amplify historical and ongoing structural tensions.