Chernobyl’s Sixth Sense: The Symbolism of an Ever-Present Awareness

Title: Chernobyl’s Sixth Sense: The Symbolism of an Ever-Present Awareness

Author: Sarah D. Phillips

Reference: Anthropology and Humanism, Volume 29, Issue 2, pages 159–185, December 2004

doi: 10.1525/ahu.2004.29.2.159

Keywords: Chernobyl, Ukraine, memory, symbol, museum

Abstract: [This article examines the symbolic life of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. I argue that Chernobyl symbols serve as a set of resources: they produce memory, and they are the grounds for making a new society. My analyses are based on representations of Chernobyl in academic and popular discourse, literature, and museums. Through discussions of embodiment and collective memory, I argue that Chernobyl has produced a sort of sixth sense or “awareness-plus” among those who share the experience of the disaster.]

URL:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/ahu.2004.29.2.159/abstract