Chernobyl and the contemporary nuclear imagination

Abstract

"Chernobyl" today is not only an actual event, but also a symbolic one. As such, it is similar to other traumatic events in twentieth century history - the Holocaust, Auschwitz, and Hiroshima. After Chernobyl the image of the world has changed, and the history of the new era of nuclear culture has begun. How one can talk about the trauma of Chernobyl? Who are the witnesses of Chernobyl? How the nuclear imagination is connected with the experience of Chernobyl?