Ecological and Aesthetic Potential of Works about Chornobyl: Technogenic Disaster as a Literary Problem

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is aimed at revealing the theme of the Chornobyl disaster as an apocalypse in the lyrical works of Ukrainian poets. The prerequisites for the development of the phenomenon of the “post-Chornobyl library” are revealed, the works of outstanding sixtiers (Ivan Drach, Lina Kostenko, Borys Oliynyk, and Dmytro Pavlychko) are considered, the elements that are called to the accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant are highlighted, and an imagery analysis of the selected works is carried out. Discourses about the catastrophe, apocalypse, and postapocalypse are highlighted to demonstrate Chornobyl, in lyrics and lyrical epic, as the largest man-made environmental and humanitarian tragedy. The connection between the Chornobyl discourse in literature and criticism of the Soviet regime as a manifestation of inhumanity and totalitarianism is revealed. An array of ecological poetry of lesser-known authors is processed and their contribution to the poetry of the paradigm is indicated, and a detailed analysis of the ecological lyrics of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries by authors Nina Hnatiuk, Tetiana Yakovenko, and Valentyna Storozhuk is carried out.