Representation of Nuclear Threats and Disasters in Literature, Film, Music, and Video Games

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The panel delves into the artistic exploration and representation of nuclear threats and disasters
across various mediums - literature, film, music, and video games. We explore how artists
interpret the existential dangers posed by nuclear power as well as the environmental impacts
from sites like the Semipalatinsk polygon and Chornobyl. Our interdisciplinary panel allows us
to connect diverse forms of knowledge transmission encompassing the impact of the traumatic
experiences associated with nuclear modernity. The presenters will attempt to determine how
creative outputs respond to the nuclear power that threatens to redefine environmental, cultural,
collective and personal values. The papers approach the artistic works from the perspective of
ecocriticism, cinematic philosophy, ethnomusicology and preservation via video games.

Sub Unit

• Anthropology, Cultural Studies

Chair

• Thomas Seifrid, U of Southern California

Papers

• Nuclear Tests and Crying Land in Rollan Seysenbayev’s 'The Day When the World Collapsed' - Assel Uvaliyeva, U of Southern California

• Existential Threat of Modern Technologies in Tarkovsky’s 'Solaris' and 'The Sacrifice' - Alla Baeva, St. John's U

• Sounds of Contamination: Environmental Narratives in Galya Bisengalieva’s Music about Liberation from Soviet Nuclear Legacy - Anya Shatilova, Wesleyan U

• Zones of Parafictional Post-Apocalypse in Video Games: Chornobyl as a Digital Landscape - Marisa Karyl Franz, New York U

Discussants

• Thomas Seifrid, U of Southern California

• Jillian Porter, New York U