Deadly Snow: Meditations on Muriel Rukeyser, Andrei Tarkovsky, and the Pandemic Era

Authors

Nicole Lawrence, Marshall UniversityFollow

Abstract

The following personal essay meditates on Appalachian fatalism and its relationship to vaccine and mask hesitancy. The analogous relationship between ecological destruction and uncertainty with the exploitation and abuse of the body serves as a waypoint to explore Appalachia’s larger dismissal towards “protection” during the pandemic. Included are original art pieces that serve to intertextually converse with Rukeyser’s activism, West Virginia’s aesthetic schism between industrial catastrophe and symbols of prosperity, and Tarkovsky’s imagery of desolation and hope.

Recommended Citation

Lawrence, Nicole. "Deadly Snow: Meditations on Muriel Rukeyser, Andrei Tarkovsky, and the Pandemic Era." Critical Humanities 1, 1 (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.33470/2836-3140.1002