A01=Marie-Helene Huet
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angry gods
astrology
Author_Marie-Helene Huet
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catastrophes
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBG
Category=JBCC
Category=JFC
Category=NHB
Category=RNR
cholera pandemic
collective crisis
control
COP=United States
crises
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disaster relief
dystopia
earthquakes
epidemics
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Format=BB
Format_Hardback
french literary criticism
government
human causes
identity
intellectual history
Language_English
memory
modern world
natural disasters
obscure power
PA=Contact supplier
personal tragedy
philosophers
philosophy
plague of 1720
political concept
post-enlightenment culture
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
religion
shipwrecks
softlaunch
technology
the enlightenment
violent universe
Product details
- ISBN 9780226358215
- Format: Hardback
- Weight: 510g
- Dimensions: 16 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 04 Oct 2012
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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From antiquity through the Enlightenment, disasters were attributed to the obscure power of the stars or the vengeance of angry gods. As philosophers sought to reassess the origins of natural disasters, they also made it clear that humans shared responsibility for the damages caused by a violent universe. This far-ranging book explores the way writers, thinkers, and artists have responded to the increasingly political concept of disaster from the Enlightenment until today. Marie-Helene Huet argues that post-Enlightenment culture has been haunted by the sense of emergency that made natural catastrophes and human deeds both a collective crisis and a personal tragedy. From the plague of 1720 to the cholera of 1832, from shipwrecks to film dystopias, disasters raise questions about identity and memory, technology, control, and liability. In her analysis, Huet considers anew the mythical figures of Medusa and Apollo, theories of epidemics, earthquakes, political crises, and films such as "Blow-Up" and "Blade Runner". With its scope and precision, "The Culture of Disaster" will appeal to a wide public interested in modern culture, philosophy, and intellectual history.
Marie-Helene Huet is the M. Taylor Pyne Professor of French at Princeton University. She is the author of numerous books, including Mourning Glory: The Will of the French Revolution and Monstrous Imagination.
