Chernobyl and Literature

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer discusses the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and looks at writers who have made a profound impact on the response to the disaster. The writer notes that the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Soviet Union in 1986 was one of the worst disasters of the 20th century, and it has had horrible effects on the people who lived anywhere near the nuclear plant. The writer points out that many writers and artists have had a profound impact on the response to Chernobyl. The writer discusses that some writers are still contributing to that impact with continuing coverage of the aftermath of Chernobyl and how it has affected the citizens of Russia and worst of all, how it has affected their children, and continues to affect the area, more than 20 years after the disaster.

From the Paper:

"Most of the families are extremely poor, and have little hope for the future. Authors De Jong and Knoth corroborate this poverty and hopelessness in their photo-essay that chronicles children and adults throughout the Belarus region. Some have committed suicide, others have abandoned their newborn children at hospitals because of their health conditions, and few have moved away, because they do not have the resources to do so. These authors graphically illustrate how horrible the disaster was, the magnitude of the radiation, and how radiation lingers throughout the region, but the people go on living their lives just as they did before. They bathe, fish, and hunt in contaminated rivers, eat contaminated food grown in contaminated soil, and live in towns and villages too contaminated to support life, yet the government does nothing."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Croce, Marie. "Children of the Damned; the After-Effects of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster Have Turned the Village of Lapachy into a Hell on Earth." Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland) 10 Feb. 2001: 34.
• De Jong, Antoinette, and Robert Knoth. "Nuclear Nightmares: Twenty Years Since Chernobyl." Pixie Press.org. 2006. 6 Dec. 2007.
• Baverstock, Keith, and Dillwyn Williams. "The Chernobyl Accident 20 Years On: An Assessment of the Health Consequences and the International Response." Environmental Health Perspectives 114.9 (2006): 1312+.

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