Как пережить природную катастрофу: несколько советов из мировой литературы
How to survive a natural disaster: some tips from world literature

Summary/Abstract: Literature, according to Leo Tolstoy, explores the behavior of people, when the conditions of life to which they “were accustomed to submit would be completely upset”. In the centuries-old history of life, which literature writes in its own way, many pages are devoted to the history of natural disasters. The disaster literature is a story about how people face natural or man-made catastrophes; how they react to the challenges posed by nature: whether they act out of danger or they hide their fear under the guise of denial. Fiction throughout its history talks about the dualism of nature: each of the natural elements carries both a blessing and a threat. In the eternal theme of “nature and man”, the life-giving and destructive sides of the elements coexist as relatively equal. In the literature of catastrophes, nature as a comfortable, cozy human habitat and nature as an unrestrained destructive element come into conflict. In literature and art, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD became a symbol of the destructive power of fire. The wrath of Vesuvius is captured in the letters of Pliny the Younger to Tacitus. An ancient author tells how the elements of fire, earth and water took up arms against people: “the sea: it was still stormy and hostile. The ships had to go through a rain of stones and ashes”. Fire and burning air cause the death of Pliny the Elder.

• Details
• Contents