1、 Concept definition

The term 'disaster' has multiple meanings in different contexts, including unfortunate events and natural disasters in everyday language, as well as dramatic plot twists in literary research. The historical evolution of the concept of disaster shows that it has gradually narrowed from a theatrical poetic concept to a modern everyday language. The concepts of disaster, crisis, and risk differ in describing the intensity and form of social state changes. Disaster emphasizes the factual nature of events, while crisis and risk focus on future possibilities and positive human behavior. The temporal dimension of the concept of disaster points to the past, reflecting human vulnerability, while crisis and risk focus on the future, emphasizing human positive abilities. The unpredictability of nature and social vulnerability interact with each other under specific conditions, together forming the concept of disaster.

2、 Conceptual semantic changes

Cultural scholar Olaf Briyes from Humboldt University discovered through a study of conceptual history that the term Katastrophe originates from ancient Greek and originally meant 'downward turning point'. In ancient Greece, the term was used to describe military and political repression or the end of life, with both positive and negative connotations. In ancient Rome, Katastrophe mainly referred to the final part of drama, and the Renaissance and early modern period inherited this poetic concept. At the beginning of the 17th century, Katastrophe borrowed from French or Latin to German and began to be used in non literary fields, increasingly describing unfortunate turns. In the 18th century, Katastrophe had both positive and negative understandings based on a pessimistic worldview in Enlightenment and Weimar classical drama. In the 19th century, the concept of disasters was fixed as natural unfortunate events, reflecting the modern view of nature that separates humans from nature. The semantic connotation of the concept of disaster has evolved with history, shifting from cultural to natural domains. Its significance ranges from minor unfortunate events to major historical events, and even the end of human history. Exploring the semantic changes of the concept of disaster in depth can help understand the historical evolution of people's views on disasters and the changes in their mechanisms for overcoming them.

3、 Change in Disaster Perception

Hefrid Minkler explored the cultural history of the concept of disaster, pointing out that ancient Greek philosophers regarded disaster as a turning point in history, believing that disasters led to the periodic destruction and rebirth of civilization. This viewpoint contrasts with the disaster views of Judaism and Christianity, which believe that disasters are God's punishment for human sins and can be limited or avoided through repentance. From the Middle Ages to the early modern era, the mode of explaining the causes of disasters shifted from the inevitability of fate to the guilt of individuals themselves. During the Enlightenment period, the explanation of disasters began to secularize, and philosophers such as Kant regarded disasters as the result of natural and human factors, promoting scientific methods for disaster prediction and prevention. In the 18th century, the application of probability theory made disasters seen as computable risks, and the 19th century further strengthened this risk awareness. The time dimension of disasters has also shifted from sudden changes to continuous gradual changes, and evolution theory has replaced the idea of disasters. In the second half of the 19th century, Marx regarded disasters as the obstruction of reactionary classes in social and economic history, and revolution as a continuous event in the historical process. After World War I, people's welcome of war reflected their expectations for a sudden change in history, but World War II and the Holocaust completely destroyed this expectation. The Auschwitz incident negated the imagination of God's redemption, and humans became the only ones responsible for the disaster. At the end of the 20th century, a new model of the relationship between nature and society emerged, with nature becoming an "internal phenomenon" of society and environmental disasters becoming a global systemic threat. Ulrich Beck proposed the concept of a risk society, emphasizing the risks posed by science and technology themselves, which become knowledge objects constructed by scientists and tools for power manipulation. The concept of disaster has evolved from an event concept to a process concept, and then to a state concept. Its time dimension continues to extend with the process of social modernization, approaching the concept of crisis, which puts modern people under a continuous perception of disaster. The explanatory modes of disasters range from divine will to natural contingency, and then to human risk, with multiple modes working together in the specific interpretation of disasters.

4、 Literature's portrayal of disasters

Literature shapes disaster images through cultural appropriation and endows them with specific metaphorical meanings. Earthquakes symbolize God's omnipotence, judgment, or social and political change, as in Kleist's "The Chilean Earthquake" which satirizes the French Revolution. The Great Flood in the Bible symbolizes God's punishment for the sins of mankind, while shipwrecks symbolize the severity and contingency of human existence, as seen in the Odyssey and Robinson Crusoe. Literature focuses on the forms and meanings of human perception of disasters, and disaster aesthetics involve noble themes, paying attention to human emotions, language, physical posture, and inner transcendence in the face of disasters. Disaster literature explores the issue of contingency, reflects on existing modes of interpretation, and uses disaster analogies to describe human survival situations and historical order. Disasters create differences and fractures in history, and literature can discuss the "before and after" of disasters, as well as the utopia or countryside that opposes disasters. Disaster literature inherits historical memory, fictionalizes the origin, process, and end of history. From ancient Greece to Baroque literature, disasters were often understood as fate or divine punishment, and during the Enlightenment and Weimar classical periods, disasters gained dialectical significance. In 19th-century realism literature, natural disasters were placed at the intersection of science and mystical experience. The two world wars of the 20th century gave rise to documentary and autobiographical literature about disasters, which metaphorically represent the absurdity of the world and the lack of human spirit. Science fiction apocalypse literature has become an important literary genre, disaster literature connects past memories, reflects on the situation of modern people, and opens up imagination for future society.