Good Example Of The Lisbon Earthquake Essay

The three articles are exclusively about the Lisbon earthquake that took place in 1st November 1755, which was one of the largest in magnitude and most widely felt in the historical Europe. It is considered as the first modern disaster.
“The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 Representations and reactions” by Braun and Radner (2005)
The book by Braun and Radner is a collection of articles that gives a new analysis of the scientific, theological and philosophical responses evoked by the devastating Lisbon disaster of 1755. Though the earthquake had led to the destruction of European metropolis, it is counted as a truly and literally awesome event. It explains about the causal factors; assess the reactions to this disaster, representing literature, history, philosophy, seismology, disaster studies and political science.

The destruction and regeneration: Lisbon, 1755 by Malcolm Jack

Malcolm Jack depicts the happenings and physical picture of the city before and after the incident, damage caused to public buildings, collections and private houses relying on the eyewitness account. He also gives account of the new city was built on the ruins and how in that process a new Portugal and Lisbon were formed. This largely owed to the enlightened despotism of the Marquis de Pombal.
This writing gives a vivid picture and description of the condition of Lisbon before and after the disaster and its reconstruction under Pombal. Though a radical, we can see his reforms like giving prominence to commercial houses, introducing the new grid system, and reforming public service and educational system in his attempt to make Portugal a modern commercial country. We can find that his measures stabilized the economy and the period of enlightened despotism was indeed a turning point in their history.
Representations of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake by James and Kozak (2005)
James and Kozak, in this chapter, gives physical description of earthquake, its causes and its effects, comparing the forces of this earthquake with others. They use their knowledge of the physical effects of earthquakes to assess the accuracy of the various visual representations of Lisbon during and after this event, while noting how the various modern themes inform these engravings.
We can see that this article depends more on seismology to verify the eyewitness accounts and other representations of the event. It further illustrates two views regarding the incident. One is the scientific conjecture, attending to the precise scale and detailed accuracy showing the realistic damage. The other is the humanitarian concern, where art resonate the utilitarian sense of social responsibility, which twisted the romanticism and revolutions in social science.

Reading the Lisbon Earthquake: Adorno, Lyotard, and the Contemporary Sublime

This is a challenging read with complex arguments, in the book “Terror and the sublime in art and critical theory From Auschwitz to Hiroshima to September 11” by Gene Ray (2005). Ray argues that all the genocides are related to modern capitalism. Here Ray links contemporary philosophy with the Lisbon catastrophe and Kant’s writings on it. Ray focuses on the key passage in which Kant depicts the tremor of the imagination before nature’s abyss until it is recalled and recovered by reason.
The concept of sublime is employed to describe forms of representation that deal with the unpresentable. This incident met the traditional category of sublime with material disaster of contemporary history. Throughout the chapter we can see that narratives of Kant, Benjamin, Adorno, and Lyotard convey a qualitative transformation of the sublime with reference to Lisbon earthquake.