Aristotle's Tragedy Katharsis Said The Study

What the meaning of katharsis is remains a difficult but unavoidable problem for every reader of Aristotle’s Poetics, of which the most important reason is that it lies at the core of grasping Aristotle’s theory of tragedy. On account of this, this thesis still sets itself the aim to focus its research on this subject. With the abundance of fruitful results from former researches, this thesis is intended to base its study on the close reading and analysis of original Greek version of Aristotle’s works; besides, we cannot do researches separately about the Poetics by ignoring the whole system of Aristotle’ thinkings.This thesis goes on with a strict logic of clarifying the important concepts first to get katharsis ready to be clearly interpreted finally. The preface works as a summarization and reflection of both the pre-Aristotlelian uses of katharsis and former theories of this concept in tragedy. The first chapter deals with the concept of mimesis in Poetics. The main problems it intends to solve are what it means for mimesis to get people to cognize, the signification of <this is that> and the pleasure acquiring out of mimesis. The key to answering these problems lies in the differentiation Aristotle made between the two words of <look>, that is, horao and theoreo. The second chapter discusses about tragic characters. We introduce Aristotle’s theory of soul and virtue into out discussion, based on which we try to demonstrate that <the person in-between> is meant to be a tragic character. Furthermore, after examining the concepts of virtue, friendship, decent man, happiness, etc., we look deeper into the meaning of theoreo and see its inner link with the good (happiness). Afterwards, the third chapter gets finally to the problems of tragic plot. With the method of close reading, we find out a different point-of-view (allo and heteron) in the developing of plot; we put forward a thorough examination of pity and horror, reversal and recognition; we explain the profound signification of probability and necessity, and the reason why <poetry is more philosophical and more elevated than history>. Eventually we come face to face with katharsis:a process which leads the audience to transform through an actor to a pure contemplator.