3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

Catharsis isn’t solipsistic. Its power requires an eccentric stimulus, be it Antigone’s tragic fate or a cascade of sounds in a Baroque concerto. Occasionally, the experience of catharsis occurs in everyday life, where it is dimmed, while in art it is fulgurant. The course will analyze catharsis in response to selected literary, visual, and musical representation from Aristotle to the present. We will also consider ironic catharsis, anti-catharsis, and the catharsis of comedy. Selected readings: Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star; Lev Vygotsky, The Psychology of Art; Stanisław Lem, Tales of Pirx the Pilot; J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words; Sianne Ngai, Ugly Feelings; Aby Warburg on Pathosformeln. Theater, film, music, art: Jacques Tati, Mr. Hulot’s Holiday; Janusz Głowacki, Antigone in New York; Albrecht Dürer’s Death of Orpheus; Gustav Mahler, Second Symphony; Iwo Arabski, selected paintings.