{"id":1472,"date":"2017-04-12T16:46:39","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T20:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/?p=1472"},"modified":"2017-04-12T16:46:39","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T20:46:39","slug":"a-naive-discussion-of-heterotopia-and-chernobyl-via-one-of-dr-samples-favorite-sentences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/04\/12\/a-naive-discussion-of-heterotopia-and-chernobyl-via-one-of-dr-samples-favorite-sentences\/","title":{"rendered":"A Naive Discussion of Heterotopia and Chernobyl via one of Dr. Sample\u2019s Favorite Sentences"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m making a bold statement: the following sentence is in Dr. Sample\u2019s Top 10 Favorite Sentences among the articles we have read for DIG 215:<\/span><\/p>\n

“Chernobyl is a heterotopia that allows us to gaze upon a post-apocalyptic world in which the familiar and uncanny collide.\u201d Stone (2013, p. 91)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This sentence is taken from “Dark and toxic tourism in the Chernobyl exclusion zone<\/a>“, who originally quoted it from P. Stone’s “Dark tourism, heterotopias and post-apocalyptic places: The case of Chernobyl.” Not only is the sentence construction elegant and word choice exquisite, but the use of the word \u201cuncanny\u201d really seals the deal here with a spot in the top 10. Admittedly, the word caught my eye, I reread the sentence, hemmed and hawed for a bit, and then realized I had a very small understanding of what the sentence was saying. Let\u2019s unpack the sentence in the context of today\u2019s article, starting with \u201cheterotopia\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I learned from the very helpful Wikipedia article<\/a><\/span>, heterotopia is a human geography term used to describe spaces of otherness, with multiple layers of meaning yet irrelevant, simultaneously physical and mental. Often the term is used to describe moments, like looking at yourself in a mirror or coming of age while away at boarding school. From my understanding (and please help me clarify this), describing Chernobyl as a heterotopia conveys that it has become a moment for examination, a memory, that has been perversely protected by its radiation and remains in a timeless state as a \u201cghost town\u201d (Yankovska and Hannam 1). This preserved town allows us to view a \u201cpost-apocalyptic world\u201d, one that has resulted from \u201cthe darker aspects of scientific advancement and human experience\u201d (Yankovska and Hannam 2). After all, nuclear power and weaponry are controversial topics today, with their benefits for energy production and devastating consequences. In this world the effects of the nuclear power plant explosion are everywhere, via warning signs and protective clothing visitors must wear. But signs of the everyday remain everywhere in this sort of \u201cghost town\u201d because during the accident people were inaccurately promised that they would be able to return home for their belongings in a few days. Thus, the \u201cfamiliar\u201d home scene and \u201cuncanny\u201d nuclear accident wreckage have collided to create a memorable, unsettling scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A perfect example of the collision between the familiar and uncanny: a brand-new amusement park in Pripyat that never opened.\u00a0The article can be found here<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ganna Yankovska & Kevin Hannam (2014) Dark and toxic tourism in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Current Issues in Tourism, 17:10, 929-939, DOI: 10.1080\/13683500.2013.820260<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m making a bold statement: the following sentence is in Dr. Sample\u2019s Top 10 Favorite Sentences among the articles we have read for DIG 215: “Chernobyl is a heterotopia that allows us to gaze upon a post-apocalyptic world in which the familiar and uncanny collide.\u201d Stone (2013, p. 91) This sentence is taken from “Dark … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A Naive Discussion of Heterotopia and Chernobyl via one of Dr. Sample\u2019s Favorite Sentences”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-group-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1472"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1476,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions\/1476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}