Our present is characterized by potent nuclear technologies that have a systematic impact on the planet. Also, we live in the epoch of the Anthropocene, a period in which detrimental changes to the ecosystem are directly caused by human activity. Since the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion in 1986, Chernobylscape has been one of the key imageries associated with a post-nuclear apocalypse. While initially it was placed at two extremes—a doom-and-gloom zone of exclusion and a flourishing natural sanctuary—within years other portrayals of this ongoing catastrophe appeared. The most crucial changes are observed in Chernobyl reinterpretation as a contact zone in which not only humans but multiple species are interacting. The chapter aims to investigate Western comics culture and demonstrate how humans are being decentered. The case studies include Emmanuel Lepage’s Springtime in Chernobyl (2007), Francisco Sánchez and Natacha Bustos’s Chernobyl—the Zone (2012), Jacek Matysiak’s Radioactive Animals (2019), and Helen Bate’s The Lost Child of Chernobyl (2022). These graphic narratives are analyzed as complex and multilayered genres with a range of techniques allowing their creators to move beyond a human perspective.

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The Image of Chernobyl in Western Graphic Narratives

  • Tetiana Ostapchuk

摘要

Our present is characterized by potent nuclear technologies that have a systematic impact on the planet. Also, we live in the epoch of the Anthropocene, a period in which detrimental changes to the ecosystem are directly caused by human activity. Since the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion in 1986, Chernobylscape has been one of the key imageries associated with a post-nuclear apocalypse. While initially it was placed at two extremes—a doom-and-gloom zone of exclusion and a flourishing natural sanctuary—within years other portrayals of this ongoing catastrophe appeared. The most crucial changes are observed in Chernobyl reinterpretation as a contact zone in which not only humans but multiple species are interacting. The chapter aims to investigate Western comics culture and demonstrate how humans are being decentered. The case studies include Emmanuel Lepage’s Springtime in Chernobyl (2007), Francisco Sánchez and Natacha Bustos’s Chernobyl—the Zone (2012), Jacek Matysiak’s Radioactive Animals (2019), and Helen Bate’s The Lost Child of Chernobyl (2022). These graphic narratives are analyzed as complex and multilayered genres with a range of techniques allowing their creators to move beyond a human perspective.