Eu catastrophe
The term eukatastrophe (turn for the better) was coined by JRR Tolkien . He used it in a letter to his son Christopher Tolkien .
Dating from the Greek word καταστροφή disaster (turn for the decline) is connected to the Greek prefix ευ- eu (good, good, right, light), the positive turn of an event. Eucatastrophe therefore means “good disaster” or “good turnaround”. In the literary sense, the eucatastrophe is the opposite of tragedy or the tragic turn. But it also means turning away from egoism towards reconciliation.
Eucatastrophe versus conversion
“Tolkien describes a natural necessity . Man will be converted in a way by adapting his behavior to the universal laws of nature. Tolkien was concerned with nothing less than creating the world all over again, with its own creation myth, its own geography, and imaginary, non-human populations, each speaking their own language with their own vocabulary and grammatical logic. This effort was necessary to convince the modern world of something that actually could no longer exist: the possible victory over evil power. "
Eucatrophe versus Salvation
Tolkien elaborated his view in the essay On Fairy Tales , enriched with the theory of the eucatastrophe, the surprising turn for the better ... “And one of these miracles is the largest and most complete eucatastrophe that one can imagine. This narrative has gone down in history and in the primary world: the desire and ambition of the second creation was raised to the fulfillment of the work of creation. The birth of Christ is the eu catastrophe in human history. ”Tolkien also describes how an extremely complex dynamic can arise from a comparatively small initial chance.
"I coined the word 'eucatastrophe': the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce). And I was there led to the view that it produces its peculiar effect because it is a sudden glimpse of truth, your whole nature chained in material cause and effect, the chain of death, feels a sudden relief as if a major limb out of joint had suddenly snapped back. It perceives - if the story has literary 'truth' on the second plane (….) - that this is indeed how things really do work in the Great World for which our nature is made. And I concluded by saying that the Resurrection was the greatest 'eucatastrophe' possible in the greatest Fairy Story - and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in love. "
“I coined the term“ eucatastrophe ”to denote an unexpectedly happy turn of the action that moves to happy tears (which, as I have explained elsewhere, has to be the highest aim in the effect of a fairy tale). I also expressed the view that its peculiar effect is based on a flash of insight into a higher truth, which gives the reader or listener a sudden feeling of liberated relief in his entire being, which is caught in the chains of the real world of causality and death as if an essential element that had come out of joint suddenly straightened itself out again. It is an expression of the recognition that - if the action shows literary "truth" of the second level (...) - this is actually the way in which things in the "great world" for which our being was created in Reality. And I ended at that time with the remark that the resurrection was the greatest imaginable "eucatastrophe" in the greatest imaginable fairy tale story, which causes the most important emotion of all: the joy of the Christian, which moves to tears because it is so close to mourning there it comes from those areas where joy and sorrow are one, reconciled with one another, just as selfishness and selflessness disappear in love. "
Eucatastrophe versus Creation
In Tolkien's view, “second-created” secondary worlds set standards in contrast to the real world. If the story about a secondary world is bad, at some point disbelief will arise again (catastrophe) and the reader will return to the “primary world”. However, if the story is good and gives comfort and hope (eucatastrophe), those who accept it will linger in the "secondary world". To draw, to create something, Tolkien considers a deeply human quality and a need that needs to be satisfied.