Chernobyl, Chornobyl and Anthropocentric Narrative

Abstract

This article examines the representation of animals in the drama series Chernobyl (2019). In doing so it evidences anthropocentric narrative; that is, story-telling in which the prioritisation of the human and human-centred matters are normalised. Drawing on specific examples from the programme, it shows how animals are used as representational resources enabling the series’ human-centred narrative to be told, in particular focusing on the depiction of the death of animals, and the use of animals as metaphor. The article draws on approaches arising from the ‘animal turn’, which aims to decentre human-ness as the only form of experience and to critique speciesist hierarchies. Chernobyl is a useful case study for such an analysis precisely because the historical event it depicts is one that had, and continues to have, significant consequences for non-human beings.