Narrating Health Literacy within Nuclear Toxic Legacies: Intermedial Ecocritical Perspective on Radiological Hazards in U.S. Nuclear Fiction

Peer reviewe

On the “female” motive in the Ukrainian post-Chornobyl «nuclear» fiction : the ecocritical perspective on the myth

1. Sukhenko, I. Reconsidering the Eco-Imperatves of Ukrainian Consciousness: An Introducton to Ukrainian Environmental Literature. In: Ecoambiguity, Community, and Development: Toward a Politcized Ecocritcism (Ecocritcal Theory and Practce). Lexington Books/Rowman & Litlefeld’s new Ecocritcal Theory and Practce Series, Lexington Books, 2014, pp. 113-130. 2. Hundorova, Т. Pislyachornobylska biblioteka. Ukrainskiy literaturnyy postmodern [Post-Chornobyl Library. Ukrainian Literary Postmodern]. Kyiv, Кrytyka, 2005, 263 p. (In Ukrainian). 3. Kramarchuk, Kh. Transformaton Archetype of Madonna in Architectural Subject Environment. In: Architectural Studies, 2015, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 15-21. 4. Korzeniowska-Bihun, A. Zona Czarnobylska We Współczesnej Dramaturgii Ukraińskiej [Chornob Chornobyl Zona in the Contemporary Ukrainian Drama Studies], 2016, pp. 212-222. Available at: htps://www.researchgate.net/publicaton/299043992_Zona_czarnobylska_we_wspoczesnej_dramaturgii_ukrainskiej (Accessed 12 September 2018). 5. Lindsay, S. Reading Chernobyl: Psychoanalysis, Deconstructon, Literature. The University of Strling, 2014. Available at: htp://citeweb.info/20142322956 (Accessed 12 September 2018). 6. Yovenko, S. Zhinka v Zoni. Povist, opovidannya, poeziya [A Woman in the Zone. Novellas, Short Stories, Poetry]. Kyiv, Ukrainian Propileyi Publ., 2016, 489 p. (In Ukrainian). 7. Niamtsy, А. Mif. Legenda. Literatura (teoretcheskiye aspecty formirovaniya) [Myth. Legend. Literature (The Theoretcal Aspects of Formaton)]. Chernovtsy, Ruta Publ., 2007, 520 p. (In Russian). 8. Mary of Nazareth, Mother of Jesus. “Women in the Bible” Project. Available at: htp://www.womeninthebible.net/women-bible-old-new-testaments/mary-jesus-mother/ (Accessed 12 September 2018). 9. Kovalenko, М. Оbraz Bozhoyi materi u retsepstyi T. Shevchenka i I. Dracha [The image of Madonna in T. Shevchenko’s and I. Drach’s Receptons]. Literaturoznavchi Studiyi [Literary Studies], 2015, vol. 1, pp. 235-245 (In Ukrainian). 10. Yavorovskiy, V. (ed.) Chernobyl: tragediya, podvig, preduprezgdeniye. [Chernobyl: Tragedy, Feat,Warning]. Моscow, Progress Publ., 1988, 124 p. (In Russian). 11. Yavorivskiy, V. Mariya z polynom na prykintsi stolita [Maria with Wormwood at the End of the Century]. Vitchyzna [Homeland], 1987, no. 7, pp. 16-19 (In Ukrainian). 12. Drach, І. Chornobylska Madonna [Chornobyl Madonna]. Vitchyzna [Homeland], 1988, Issue1, p. 43 (In Ukrainian). 13. Tkachenko, А. Khudozhniy svit І. Dracha [I. Drach’s Fictonal World]. Кyiv, Lybid Publ., 1992, 78 p. (In Ukrainian).The explosion at Chornobyl nuclear power plant (26 April, 1986) in the literary perspectve not only launched a new signifcant epoch of the Ukrainian nuclear discourse but also reconsidered the archetypes within the Ukrainian nuclear narratve. The transformatons of Madonna’s image in the Chornobyl literary responses to the disaster are under study here in the “provincializing” ecocritcal aspects of researching “nuclear narratve” within nuclear environmental humanites. In Ukrainian culture traditon this archetype is a milestone of the collectve unconsciousness of the Ukrainian people as well as a source of shaping new images which makes this “female” motve as a central one in the Ukrainian literature. In the Chornobyl narratve Madonna, the Mother of God is represented as a multfaceted image of a Slavic woman, which combines several female reincarnations which allows the integrated image of Madonna to split into some components in the historical and social perspectves. Appealing to the biblical character – Madonna, the Mother of God – within the Ukrainian nu within the Ukrainian nuclear narrative allows distinguishing the local/global dimensions of writing practices in the context of studying the correlations between human beings’ activity within “Atom for Peace” initiative and the tools of shaping “nuclear identity” within the ecocritical vision to ecological memory and ecological consciousness formation under the global/national/regional social needs in the post-trauma societies. Stressing the national as well as global nuclear tragedy in the light of reconsidering the Gospel legends and under the contemporary social and economic energy-related issues, such perspective on the image of Mary the Saint in Ukrainian nuclear fiction not only challenges the humanity for checking its power but also encourage the global features of a nuclear disaster in its literary dimensions in the aspect of current ecocritical parameters. The image of Madonna is very symbolic in its connotations of salvation, sacrifice and hope. The image of the Chornobyl Madonna embodies Ukraine as the soul of Ukrainian people, devoted to faith, hope and love, but at the same time this image is related to the global tendencies of depicting a nuclear disaster in the post-Chornobyl fiction, under the influence of ecocritical studies, nuclear criticism and environmental humanitiesPeer reviewe

What is new in new nuclear criticism? : Post-Chernobyl perspective

Researching the literary dimension of the “nuclear” narrative in Eastern-European and North American writing practices gives an opportunity to distinguish not only the local/global features of the nuclear “Other” implementation in the context of researching ecological memory and nuclear identity formation in the post-Cold-War societies but also the new concepts, methods for analysis and forms, launched by the new “nuclear” age. The “original” nuclear criticism (posted by Derrida “No Apocalypse, Not Now: Seven Missiles and Seven Missives, 1984) seemed to be fading (due to the fact that the Cold War was considered to be over) and resulted in ecocritical movement. Nevertheless, Chernobyl as well as other “nuclear energy” events, and nuclear energy in general, changed the way we think about nuclear criticism, which has proved the launch of new nuclear criticism with its methodologies of literary analysis. My presentation will demonstrate the transformations of “nuclear energy” concept - from “the politicized Chernobyl” (regarded as a tomb of the Soviet regime, the “alternative history”, the Soviet self-destroying science, as a peace of propaganda policy, a factor of national identity formation) to “slow violence of the nuclear”(“Atom for Peace”, “Sarcophagus”, “the Exclusion Zone”, “cancer death”, “Zone culture”) - in writing practices about “Chernobyl” within the last 30 years (actually covered by the post-Chernobyl experience). Basing on “hyber object frame” (T.Morton), “intergenerational memory” studies (S.Lindsay), “collective narrative” (N.Bekhta) and through the psychoanalytical lens, such approach to “nuclear” subject formation and nuclear phobia as key concepts in the contermporary nuclear narratives encourages to discuss what a new nuclear criticism might look like today and reframe the “provincialized” nuclear narratives.Peer reviewe

Nuclear Fiction within Nuclear Knowledge Management: Towards Energy Literacy

The presentation on the literary dimensions of ‘nuclear energy’ figurations in the contemporary nuclear fiction (on the example of the writing practices from the late Cold War till nowadays) demonstrates that ‘fabulously textual’ (Derrida, 1984) component of ‘the nuclear’ discourse went under transformations by shifting its references from the past (the Cold War atomic bomb literature) and from the future (the apocalyptic fiction) implications to the present one, emphasizing ‘nuclear energy’ in the context of sustainable development (nuclear policy, technology production, energy transition, nuclear explosions, uranium mines, nuclear waste management etc). Under such circumstances nuclear fiction can be regarded as a component of nuclear knowledge management (IAEA, 2020), in the aspect of its role in shaping nuclear awareness – a critical thinking about the possible benefits, risks and challenges of nuclear energy and contributes to a critical perception of nuclear energy issues – as a component of energy literacy.Peer reviewe

Change Narrative in Fictionalizing the Nuclear Disaster: Trauma as a Starting Point for Hope

Peer reviewe

Serhii Plokhy, Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe, Basic Books, 2018. [Book review]

Book review. Reviewed book: Serhii Plokhy. Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe. Publisher: Basic Books, 2018. 432 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1541617094Non peer reviewe

Nuclear Storytelling: Through Literary Figurations to Nuclear Literacy

Peer reviewe

Situating Tierratrauma within Permaculture Ethics in Nuclear Fiction: Intermedial Ecocritical Perspective

Non peer reviewe

Fictionalizing Nuclear Terrorism in US Nuclear Fiction: James Reich’s Bombshell

This paper studies the phenomenon of fictionalizing terrorism as a literary response to the violence paradigm within nuclear narrative from the perspective of nuclear awareness formation as a critical thinking product about the nuclear energy related issues within the Nuclear Anthropocene. Focusing on James Reich’s Bombshell (2013), the paper goes beyond literary critical analysis of exploring the ways of fictionalizing the sociopolitical and psychic motives and ideas behind an act of terrorism. The paper highlights the factual component of the literary figurations of terrorism and terrorist activities in nuclear fiction, which is regarded here not only as a factor of weakening the apocalyptic rhetoric of nuclear narrative by transforming its “fabulously textual” nature, but mainly as a trigger of shaping public awareness and knowledge management on nuclear history and nuclear industry with a view to considering the possible patters of nuclear terrorism within the contemporary nuclear agenda. Keywords: nuclear fiction, nuclear narrative, terrorist narrative, nuclear terrorism, nuclear awareness, James Reich, BombshellPeer reviewe

Commodification of the Disaster : “Chernobyl” Case

30-year experience of studying “Chernobyl narrative” as a (non)fiction response to the explosion at Chernobyl nuclear energy plant (26 April, 1986) reveals that Chernobyl as a real urban Soviet City transferred into the amalgamation of its symbolic images such as a symbol of “Human-Nature” battle, an huge piece of abundant urban area, a Nature’s domination, a protector from “peaceful atom”, a tomb of the Soviet regime, selfdestroying science, a part of “private historical memory”, an unhealthy fascination (by A. Korzeniowska-Bihun), and even as a litmus test that shows the attitude of the authorities towards their own society both in the 1980s and even in the time of 2013/2014, followed by the military events. Nowadays shaped by the unique human-environment relationships, the digital society determines the transmedial transformations of “Chernobyl” perception within the convergent media culture (creating on/off-line activities – computer games S.T.A.L.K.E.R., ZONE; Chernobyl VR Project; Zone-tourism), which made “the Exclusion Zone” a subject of commodification stressing the commercialization of a nuclear disaster. “Chernobyl” extended the limits of real (and even “literary”) zone and changed into a digital place, where the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe hosts virtual characters-players wearing Exoskeletons or classic Monolith suits with gas masks and equipped with powerful weapons and aiming to reach Chernobyl Sarcopaghus and refuse Common Consciousness” Such aspect of the research is focused on studying the transformations of ”Chernobyl” (as a subject/object of commercial relations) within urban studies in the aspect of distinguishing local/global dimensions of “nuclear narrative” while stressing its implementation in shaping the “provincialized” nuclear culture. Studying the commercialized “Chernobyl” in “nuclear humanities” gives an opportunity to distinguish the local/global features of the urban studies in the context of researching ecological memory and nuclear identity in the post-traumatic societies.Peer reviewe