Narratives of risk

Gaspar Mairal

Journal of Risk Research, 2008, vol. 11, issue 1-2, 41-54

Abstract: Risk is a probabilistic notion which has been used by scientists since the sixteenth century. It is not a perception but a calculation or a narration. This paper proposes an historical perspective to show how risk jumped from mathematical calculation to the narrative. A book by Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year , which was published in 1720, is the best example of an early narrative of risk. Together with the example of Defoe's book, some ethnographic episodes from Spain are described and analysed: the protest against the Almaraz nuclear power station, the sinking of the Prestige and the subsequent oil slick, the flooding of a campsite in Biescas where 86 people died. This paper suggests an exploration into the narratives of evil, harm and suffering to classify them in terms of uncertainty, risk, fear, panic and terror. The Diaries of Viktor Klemperer (1996) are used as the narrative material to be interpreted in order to identify different kinds of narrative. Also the literature written by some of the Holocaust survivors, Primo Levi for example, becomes a very relevant source to understand how the identity of victims comes from a narrative challenge: to tell the truth.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1080/13669870701521321

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