Grasping the scale of events: Voices from Chernobyl between the historical and the monumental

Abstract

The paper discusses the significance new forms of literary narration can have on the representation of groundbreaking historical events. Based initially on Hayden White’s work and his term modernist event, we argue that new kinds of events need new ways of writing history. However, neither has White given any concrete persuasive examples of how his paradigmatic historical work might look like nor have his critics given enough attention to his considerations on the matter. By focusing our analysis on Svetlana Alexievich’s literary work and specifically on her book Voices from Chernobyl, we try to achieve exactly this: to analyze the innovative literary features that Alexievich develops in the testimonial narratives she builds and to highlight the importance they have for representing the past. For this purpose, we take a closer look at the thematic connection of the testimonies and the sense of non-linearity they create; comment on her success to approach in this way the ‘unseen event’ and bring the reader closer to the horrific and confusing reality that the witnesses describe; and show how literary techniques like the use of parataxis can efficiently grasp and mediate the differences in the temporal scale of hard-to-comprehend historical events and their consequences. Especially examining how Alexievich deals with this temporal particularity in her narrative, the paper suggests new ways to deal with the complex temporalities and discontinuities that go beyond modern historical thinking.