Catharsis

Catharsis (Ancient Greek: Κάθαρσις) is a Greek word meaning "purification",

"cleansing" or "clarification." It is derived from the infinitive verb of Ancient Greek:
καθαίρειν transliterated as kathairein "to purify, purge," and adjective Ancient Greek:
καθαρός katharos "pure or clean."

Dramaturgical uses

The term in drama refers to a sudden emotional climax that evokes overwhelming
feelings of great sorrow, pity, laughter or any other extreme change in emotion, resulting
in restoration, renewal and revitalization in members of the audience.[citation needed]

Using the term "catharsis" to refer to a form of emotional cleansing was first done by the
Greek philosopher Aristotle in his work Poetics. It refers to the sensation, or literary
effect, that would ideally overcome an audience upon finishing watching a tragedy (a
release of pent-up emotion or energy). In his previous works, he used the term in its
medical sense (usually referring to the evacuation of the "katamenia", the menstrual fluid
or other reproductive material).[1] Because of this, F. L. Lucas maintains that catharsis
cannot be properly translated as purification or cleansing, but only as purgation. Since
before Poetics catharsis was purely a medical term, Aristotle is employing it as a medical
metaphor. "It is the human soul that is purged of its excessive passions."[2] Lessing
sidesteps the medical aspect of the issue and translates catharsis as a purification, an
experience that brings pity and fear into their proper balance: "In real life, he explained,
men are sometimes too much addicted to pity or fear, sometimes too little; tragedy brings
them back to a virtuous and happy mean."[3] Tragedy is then a corrective; through
watching tragedy the audience learns how to feel these emotions at the proper levels.
Some modern interpreters of the work infer that catharsis is pleasurable because audience
members felt ekstasis (Greek: ἔκστασις)(ecstacy)(literally: astonishment, meaning:
trance) from the fact that there existed those who could suffer a worse fate than them was
to them a relief.[citation needed] Any translator attempting to interpret Aristotle's meaning of the
term should take into account that Poetics is largely a response to Plato's claim that
poetry encourages men to be hysterical and uncontrolled. In response to Plato, Aristotle
maintains that poetry makes them less, not more, emotional, by giving a periodic and
healthy outlet to their feelings.

In literary aesthetics, catharsis is developed by the conjunction of stereotyped characters

and unique or surprising actions. Throughout a play we do not expect the nature of a
character to change significantly, rather pre-existing elements are revealed in a relatively
straight-forward way as the character is confronted with unique actions in time. This can
be clearly seen in Oedipus Rex where King Oedipus is confronted with ever more
outrageous actions until emptying generated by the death of his mother-wife and his act
of self-blinding.[
In contemporary aesthetics catharsis may also refer to any emptying of emotion
experienced by an audience in relation to drama. This exstasis can be perceived in
comedy, melodrama and most other dramatic forms. Deliberate attempts, on political or
aesthetic bases, to subvert the structure of catharsis in theatre have occurred. For
example, Bertolt Brecht viewed catharsis as a pap for the bourgeois theatre audience, and
designed dramas which left significant emotions unresolved, as a way to force social
action upon the audience. In Brecht's theory, the absence of a cathartic resolving action
would require the audience to take political action in the real world in order to fill the
emotional gap they experience. This technique can be seen as early as his agit-prop play
The Measures Taken.