Radioactive Spacetimes and the Quantum Cosmologies of Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner

This article draws upon the work of poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, who incorporates Marshallese storytelling techniques and draws upon matrilineal Marshallese lifeways to contend with the 'slow violence' [Nixon, Rob. 2011. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge: Harvard UP] of the fallout (radiological, epidemiological, and socio-political) left in the wake of nuclear testing. A poet, a performer, and an activist, Jetnil-Kijiner is eminently concerned in her creative work with the entangled traumas of body burdens, colonial subjugation, and environmental and cultural degradation heralded by the fallout of the sixty-seven nuclear weapons tests carried out in her home of the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958; Keown, Michelle. 2017. Children of Israel: US Military Imperialism and Marshallese Migration in the Poetry of Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 19 (7): 930-947, 932]. By contextualising the work of Jetnil-Kijiner relative to the history of nuclear testing in the Pacific, I hope to show how her feminist poetic projects are commensurate with the more radical syllabi of quantum mechanical phenomena even as they remain committed to challenging the scientific pretensions underwriting radioactive colonialism.

Automated summary

This article explores the work of poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, who incorporates Marshallese storytelling techniques and draws upon matrilineal Marshallese lifeways to address the 'slow violence' caused by nuclear testing. Jetnil-Kijiner's creative work focuses on the intertwining traumas of body burdens, colonial subjugation, and environmental and cultural degradation resulting from the nuclear tests conducted in the Marshall Islands. By contextualizing her work within the history of nuclear testing in the Pacific, the article demonstrates how her feminist poetic projects align with radical syllabi of quantum mechanical phenomena while challenging the scientific assumptions underlying radioactive colonialism.