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'The harvest of despair': Catastrophic fear and the understanding of risk in the shadow of Mount Etna

Ware, L and Whittington, LJ (2020) 'The harvest of despair': Catastrophic fear and the understanding of risk in the shadow of Mount Etna. In: Gerrard, C, ed. Waiting for the End of the World: The Archaeology of Risk and its Perception in the Middle Ages. Routledge, London, pp. 143-161. (KAR id:62980)

Abstract

In this chapter, we offer an account of fear and risk in anticipation of catastrophe. We draw on the narrative response to the Mount Enta volcano in medieval Sicily to frame an evaluation of how fear can be seen to impact the understanding of risk when the event of that risk is the catastrophic suffering of an entire community. We aim to demonstrate how an exploration of the philosophical questions surrounding the emotion of fear and the understanding of risk can contribute to broader, interdisciplinary dialogue on the experience of the disastrous and deadly.

Item Type: Book section
Uncontrolled keywords: fear, risk, suffering, disasters, archaeology
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Lauren Ware
Date Deposited: 30 Aug 2017 13:56 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 00:23 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/62980 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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