Catastrophe écologique et quotidien dans Les grands cerfs de Claudie Hunzinger

Abstract

Anticipation and science fiction have long monopolized the theme of environmental disaster, representing it as an accomplished reality that is impossible for humanity to ignore. This study focuses on a novel which, going against the grain, describes the current catastrophe in a realistic manner, considering it as a continuous process, almost imperceptible except in the smallest of its daily manifestations. Les grands cerfs by Claudie Hunzinger evokes the meeting of Pamina, its narrator, with the deer she observes in the Vosges forest where she lives. Through an enlightened and empathetic contemplation of the wild world, Pamina observes its decline and – in deep dismay – questions the inevitability of death.