Awakening contaminated lands: (Re)mediated landscapes as transcultural TV memory work,a case study of Sky/HBO miniseries,Chernobyl (2019)

Abstract

This article focuses on the five-part miniseries, Chernobyl (2019), with its contaminated landscape that deals with a troubled, traumatic history. It takes inspiration from the work of Walter Benjamin and his concept of historical materialism, but principally draws on theoretical paradigms dealing with transcultural memory, to advance a discussion on memory work, (re)mediation of historical events and televisual representation. Specifically the essay explores the strategies through which the Anglo-American co-production between Sky and HBO, the first of its kind, offers a collective remembrance of this man-made ecological disaster from 1986 in 2019, awakened in (re)mediated landscapes.

Keywords

HBO/Sky co-production (re)mediated landscapes transcultural memory work and televisual representation Walter Benjamin and historical materialism

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