File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_1998/bhaskar.9801, message 43


From: cbcox-AT-rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Carrol Cox)
Subject: Re: BHA: Re: Aristotle the joker
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 16:52:59 -0600 (CST)


> *Nothing* in the *Poetics*
> addresses the social dynamics of performance (unless one wants to count the
> catharsis business, which is pretty dodgy textually, but in any case is more
> psychological than social).

Gerald Else in his commentary on the *Poetics* makes catharsis *entirely*
social, and rejects all psychological interpretations of it. The catharsis
takes place in the tragic protagonist, and the whole play is structured to
win the audience's consent to the right of the protagonist to be purified
of blood guilt. I read Else 40 years ago, so I've probably simplified him
quite a bit, but he was quite firm on rejecting the psychological /
medical interpretation of it. 

Carrol


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