Catastrophic Geographies (original) (raw)

Geographical Review, 2013

Abstract

A catastrophe is a sudden upheaval. While the connotation of the original Greek word has always been negative (κατά means “down”), later uses of the term have emphasized its revolutionary quality (στρέϕειν means “turn”), to describe, for example, a sudden twist in plot at the end of a play, one that was unsettling and transformative but not necessarily undesirable. Catastrophes therefore have often been understood as ambivalent in nature, particularly when an immediate destruction is viewed against an eventual recovery that developed over time. From this perspective, the sudden disruption of the order of the existing place seems horrible, but the establishment of a new order in the resulting place appears as a distinct turn for the better.

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