LIQUIDATOR AND STALKER IN THE ARTISTIC LANDSCAPE OF CHERNOBYL

Abstract

In contemporary Ukrainian prose, the theme of the Chernobyl disaster is increasingly attracting attention due to authors’ approaches to the place where apocalyptic changes took place. Based on artistic material, the problem of the landscape of the Exclusion Zone emerges – both as a territory and as a memory. The article examines the representation of the site of collective trauma in the concepts of writers who are involved with the Zone in different ways. It discusses two positions of narrators who work with the memory of Chernobyl. These are the position of the liquidator (an eyewitness to the accident and a direct participant in the liquidation of its consequences) and the stalker (a researcher and traveler). Accordingly, the purpose of the article is to characterize the landscape model of the Chernobyl zone in the autobiographical novels by Volodymyr Shovkoshytyi, Chernobyl: I Saw It, and Markiyan Kamysh, Oformlyandia. Biographical, cultural-historical, comparative, and textual methods were used for the study. The article describes the specifics of the depiction of the same landscape objects by both authors: the damaged fourth block of the nuclear power plant, the city of Pripyat, and the villages of Polissya. The external and internal characteristics of these objects are revealed, and the specifics of the placement of artistic details in them are indicated: rivers, forests, roads, buildings, everyday objects symbolizing life and death. The means of aesthetic and emotional filling of images are explained, in particular, the ability to convey their semantic and visual transformation. The essence of both works is the depiction of emptiness, which signals tragedy or can be filled with new meanings. The apt use of appropriate linguistic means and vocabulary is noted. This literary study is important for understanding the values of Ukrainians who remember the traumas of the past and who love and defend their territory from the enemy today. The issues raised in the article have prospects for further scientific research.