Authors

Tetiana Ostapchuk¹;  ¹ UCL (University College London), UK

Discussion

Since Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion in 1986, Chornobylscape has been one of the key imageries associated with Ukraine in Western popular culture. While initially it was placed on two extremes of a doom-and-gloom zone of exclusion and a flourishing natural sanctuary, within years other portrayals of this bordered land appeared. The most crucial changes are observed in Chornobyl re-interpretation as a contact zone in which not only humans, but other species and field forces are being interacted. I aim to investigate Western comics culture and demonstrate how the accents were placed and re-placed within 37 years. The case studies include Emmanuel Lepage’s Springtime in Chernobyl (2007), Francisco Sánchez and Natacha Busto’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 analysed as complex and multi-layered genres including elements of (auto)biographies, memoires, travel writings, journalist’s investigations, fantasy novels, educational materials, etc.