Environmental Memory and Ecological Trauma
An Ecocritical Study Of 'The Memory Keeper' By Masha Gessen
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15776933Abstract
Environmental disasters create complex forms of cultural memory that persist across temporal and spatial boundaries. However, limited scholarship examines how testimonial literature functions as a vehicle for environmental witnessing and the formation of what might be termed "radioactive memory." This study addresses the gap in ecocritical analysis of environmental trauma transmission through oral history practices, focusing specifically on how nuclear disasters embed themselves in collective consciousness through collaborative testimonial relationships. The research holds significance for understanding how environmental disasters exceed their immediate impacts through narrative practices that resist official minimisation of ecological trauma. This qualitative study employs an ecocritical theoretical framework combining Lawrence Buell's environmental imagination, Stacy Alaimo's material ecocriticism, and Cathy Caruth's trauma theory, utilizing close reading and thematic analysis of Masha Gessen's "The Memory Keeper" (2015) as the primary source, supplemented by scholarly literature on ecocriticism, memory studies, and oral history theory. Analysis reveals that Svetlana Alexievich's methodology represents pioneering "environmental witnessing" that captures embodied ecological trauma through collaborative testimonial practices, creating radioactive memory that persists through both narrative transmission and ongoing material contamination. Findings demonstrate how environmental witnessing disrupts conventional narrative structures while revealing the temporal complexity and political dimensions of ecological trauma. The study recommends developing theoretical frameworks for environmental memory and expanding ecocritical analysis of testimonial literature to enhance understanding of how ecological disasters shape collective experience across extended temporal horizons.
Keywords:
Ecocriticism, Ecological trauma, Environmental memory, Environmental witnessing, Radioactive memory
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