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« on: July 18, 2019, 08:25:00 PM »
Catharsis
আবেগ নির্গম
Catharsis, meaning “cleansing” in Greek, refers to a literary theory first developed by the philosopher Aristotle, who believed that cleansing our emotions was the purpose of a good story, especially a tragedy. Catharsis applies to any form of art or media that makes us feel strong negative emotions, but that we are nonetheless drawn to – we may seek out art that creates these emotions because the experience purges the emotions from our system. We can feel something intense, then walk out of the theater feeling better afterwards. Catharsis is roughly synonymous with the idea of “blowing off steam.”
Aristotle was perhaps the greatest philosopher of the ancient world, and he was curious about everything – biology, physics, politics, ethics, literature, etc. This powerful thinker raised many insightful questions and tried to answer them through philosophy. One question that particularly vexed Aristotle was: why do we enjoy watching or reading tragedies? Why do we enjoy stories that make us sad?
It’s important to remember that ancient Greek culture had real tragedies, which modern culture generally doesn’t. Hollywood seems to be addicted to happy endings, which means almost none of our popular stories are really “tragic” in the true sense. After all, a real tragedy is one in which the hero is ultimately destroyed and there is no happy ending to be found. So when Aristotle pondered the question of tragedy, he was wondering why so many people in his society preferred stories that had unhappy endings.
His theory, as we’ve seen, was that such stories are cathartic. We feel such tremendous sympathy for the hero, such rage at the villain, such sorrow at the tragic ending, that we can then walk out of the theater and back into our own lives with less “baggage,” – less pent-up emotion threatening to boil over.
Example 1
Romeo and Juliet is a great example of a tragedy, and its popularity might be explained by the idea of catharsis. In the end, the young lovers end up dead because they made the mistake of following their childish passions instead of being rational and patient. (It was intended as a cautionary tale, not a celebration of romantic love!) As an audience, we feel sympathy and pity for Romeo and Juliet, but we may also feel some relief at the end due to the effects of catharsis.
Example 2
In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe takes the structure of a classical tragedy and applies it to African culture. He tells the story of a powerful village leader whose arrogance drives away his supporters. He is ultimately brought so low that he kills himself. Catharsis, along with Achebe’s skill as a writer, may help to explain why this story is so popular.