Catharsis (literature)

The catharsis ( Greek κάθαρσις kátharsis "purification") refers to the definition of tragedy in Aristotelian poetics, the "purification" of certain affects . By experiencing grief / emotion and horror / shudder (from Greek éleos and phóbos , also translated by Lessing with pity and fear ), the viewer of the tragedy experiences a purification of his soul from these states of excitement as its effect ( Poetics , chap. 6, 1449b26 )

Catharsis was a term from the sphere of the sacred and referred to cultic purification. In the medical literature, e.g. B. in Hippocrates , the word was used for purging excretions of the body.

Interpretation and impact history

Aristotle's catharsis conception is one of the most powerful ideas in poetry theory. In the period that followed, it experienced a wide variety of interpretations and updates, which are presented below as examples.

Education in a stoic attitude towards destiny

This idea was developed by Martin Opitz in the 17th century and relates on the one hand to the philosophy of the Stoics and the originally Greek tragedy, in which man is at the mercy of a destructive fate, but has the magnitude that this fate imposed by the gods is approaching him take (e.g. Oedipus ). The tragedy and the catharsis resulting from the presentation should also guide the viewer to a stoic attitude. This idea fit in with Christian ideas of the 17th century and with the aesthetic principle set up by Opitz that poetry , in being amusing, must be useful and instructive at the same time. With this principle he settles on one of the three variants that had already been formulated by Horace in the Ars poetica , namely that poets either want to teach or amuse or both at the same time.

The purification of passions in the viewer's soul through compassion and fear

This concept was originally developed by Pierre Corneille (17th century). The conflict between passion and duty is decided by the heroic will-man, in accordance with the ethics of René Descartes in favor of duties. Also Gotthold Ephraim Lessing represented in his Hamburg Dramaturgy the concept of purification by fear and pity to the moral education to assist the public; for the most moral person is the compassionate person who fears fate for himself. The viewer suffers with the hero (e.g. in Horace ) and thus cleanses himself of his own passions. This makes it easier for him to act ethically himself.

Balance instead of cleaning

Goethe (18th century) no longer relates catharsis to the viewer, but to the characters in the play, and sees in it a balance of passions. In the sense of harmony and humanity , in the sense of the ideals of the classical period , the aim is to reconcile “duty” and “inclination” (reason and feeling) that does not cost human sacrifice (e.g. Iphigenia on Tauris ).

Further development

The moralizing interpretation of catharsis, which prevailed up to the 18th century, therefore understands psychological change primarily as preparation for moral improvement. More modern psychologizing interpretations give the change the sense of reducing psychological tension. In the psychodrama according to Jacob Levy Moreno , the catharsis according to the maxim "Every true second time is like the first time" should lead to a reorientation of the principles of life for both viewers and protagonists of the psychodramatic game.

With regard to the development of German theater , Bertolt Brecht in particular polemicized against catharsis in his theater theory ( epic theater ) and called for a distanced view of the audience. (Post) modern theater is increasingly characterized by fragmentary catharsis effects, which, however, can no longer be traced back to any dramaturgical or moral denominator.

Also Augusto Boal , inventor of the Theater of the Oppressed , which seeks to remove the distinction spectator-actor maintains catharsis "for something very hurtful." “There is also the power to change in me and in everyone else. I want to release and develop these skills. The bourgeois theater suppresses them. "

literature

Manfred Fuhrmann : Theories of poetry in antiquity. Aristotle - Horace - 'Longin'. An introduction. 2nd Edition. Darmstadt 1992, pp. 89-110.
Wolfgang Schadewaldt : Fear and Compassion? On the interpretation of the Aristotelian approach to tragedy. In: ders .: Hellas and Hesperien I. 2nd edition. Zurich / Stuttgart 1970.
Matthias Luserke (ed.): The Aristotelian catharsis: documents of their interpretation in the 19th and 20th centuries. o. V., Hildesheim 1991.
GE Lessing: Hamburg Dramaturgy. (1768/69).
F. Schiller: About the reason for enjoying tragic objects. (1792).
H. Michels: Purify the world, it needs it! Cathartic theatricality in manifestos and programs of the classical avant-garde. o. V., Berlin 2006.
Martin Vöhler, Dirck Linck (ed.): Limits of catharsis in modern arts. Transformations of the Aristotelian model since Bernays, Nietzsche and Freud. de Gruyter, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-020624-1 .
Gottfried Fischborn: Catharsis as a socialist effective strategy. Observations and hypotheses from a decade of GDR drama. In: Horst Nalewski, Klaus Schuhmann (ed.): Self-experience as world experience. GDR literature in the seventies. Structure, Berlin / Weimar 1981, DNB 820831808 .
The correspondence. (between Peter Hacks and Gottfried Fischborn). In: Gottfried Fischborn, Peter Hacks: Happy Resignation. Eulenspiegel-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-359-01684-7 , pp. 109-142.
Michael Thiele: The negation of catharsis - on the theory of the Aristotelian concept as an aesthetic phenomenon. Phil. Diss. Düsseldorf 1982, DNB 880462361 .
R. Lüthe: Catharsis. In: P. Prechtel, F.-P. Burkard (Ed.): Metzler Verlag Philosophy Lexicon. Metzler, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-476-90085-1 .
H. Biermann, B. Schurf: Texts, themes and structures. Cornelsen, o.O. 2006, ISBN 3-464-61639-8 .

Individual evidence

^ Contemplation et vie contemplative selon Plato. Paris, J. Vrin, 1936; réimp. 1975. (Bibliothèque de philosophie). ISBN 2-7116-0242-7 , p. 123 ff. See Georg Picht: Truth, Reason, Responsibility. Philosophical Studies, Stuttgart 1969, p. 133.
↑ Kindler's literary dictionary . Volume 1, p. 700.
↑ See Hor. Ars 333f. Aut prodesse volunt aut delectare poetae / aut simul et iucunda et idonea dicere vitae. (The poets either want to use or please, or at the same time say something that is both pleasant and appropriate for life.)
^ Henry Thorau: Interview with Augusto Boal, in: Augusto Boal: Theater of the Oppressed / Exercises and Games for Actors and Non-Actors. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1989, pp. 157–168, here p. 159.

[1] Contemplation et vie contemplative selon Plato. Paris, J. Vrin, 1936; réimp. 1975. (Bibliothèque de philosophie). ISBN 2-7116-0242-7 , p. 123 ff. See Georg Picht: Truth, Reason, Responsibility. Philosophical Studies, Stuttgart 1969, p. 133.

[2] Kindler's literary dictionary . Volume 1, p. 700.

[3] See Hor. Ars 333f. Aut prodesse volunt aut delectare poetae / aut simul et iucunda et idonea dicere vitae. (The poets either want to use or please, or at the same time say something that is both pleasant and appropriate for life.)

[4] Henry Thorau: Interview with Augusto Boal, in: Augusto Boal: Theater of the Oppressed / Exercises and Games for Actors and Non-Actors. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1989, pp. 157–168, here p. 159.