Katharsis means a cleansing. Aristotle used it for what a sad play does to you.1 Then he moved on without saying what he meant.
Katharsis means a cleansing. Aristotle used it for what a sad play does to you.1 Then he moved on without saying what he meant.
Screamed the whole chorus? Finally said no? Danced in the kitchen at midnight? Oh, that’s so cathartic.
Aristotle gave the word to the theatre. In the Poetics he defines tragedy and says it works through pity and fear to bring about their katharsis, a cleansing. He doesn’t explain it, so scholars are still arguing. The rest of us use it for loud choruses and midnight dances.
Aristotle, Poetics 1449b24–28.
The h in Catherine was added in the 1500s, probably to make the name look like katharos, “pure”.Put on the saddest song you know and sing along, badly.
1 Aristotle, Poetics 1449b27–28
