On the “female” motive in the Ukrainian post-Chornobyl «nuclear» fiction: the ecocritical perspective on the myth.
Journal Title: Вісник Університету імені Альфреда Нобеля. Серія "Філологічні науки" - Year 2018, Vol 2, Issue 16
Abstract
The explosion at Chornobyl nuclear power plant (26 April, 1986) in the literary perspective not only launched a new significant epoch of the Ukrainian nuclear discourse but also reconsidered the archetypes within the Ukrainian nuclear narrative. The transformations of Madonna’s image in the Chornobyl literary responses to the disaster are under study here in the “provincializing” ecocritical aspects of researching “nuclear narrative” within nuclear environmental humanities. In Ukrainian culture tradition this archetype is a milestone of the collective unconsciousness of the Ukrainian people as well as a source of shaping new images which makes this “female” motive as a central one in the Ukrainian literature. In the Chornobyl narrative Madonna, the Mother of God is represented as a multifaceted 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 perspectives. 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 humanities
Authors and Affiliations
I. M. Sukhenko
Keywords
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- EP ID EP492923
- DOI 10.32342/2523-4463-2018-2-16-20
- Views 116
- Downloads 0
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