アリストテレス『詩学』の喜劇論 : そのミュートスとカタルシス

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Aristotle describes tragedy as 'δι' ελεου και φοβου περαινουσα την των τοιουτων παθηματων καθαρσιν' (Poetics 1449b27-28) The description of musical katharsis in Politics has been thought to be the key to this katharsis clause In Politics, katharsis is apparently viewed as a kind of medical purgation As pity and fear are included among objects of purgation, medical katharsis might be expected in tragic performances as well However, we cannot reduce tragic katharsis to a purgative effect As Aristotle places the katharsis clause at the end of his definition of tragedy, we should expect the tragic katharsis to be the proper effect of tragedy itself Among many who attempt to interpret the katharsis clause, G F Else is unique in placing katharsis not in the emotions but in the structure of theAristotle describes tragedy as 'δι' ελεου και φοβου περαινουσα την των τοιουτων παθηματων καθαρσιν' (Poetics 1449b27-28) The description of musical katharsis in Politics has been thought to be the key to this katharsis clause In Politics, katharsis is apparently viewed as a kind of medical purgation As pity and fear are included among objects of purgation, medical katharsis might be expected in tragic performances as well However, we cannot reduce tragic katharsis to a purgative effect As Aristotle places the katharsis clause at the end of his definition of tragedy, we should expect the tragic katharsis to be the proper effect of tragedy itself Among many who attempt to interpret the katharsis clause, G F Else is unique in placing katharsis not in the emotions but in the structure of the tragic action Tragic action, which should deal with παθοζ among blood kinship, must show that its hero does not have polluted intent in order to eschew moral disgust(μιαρον) It should contain only the παθοζ by αμαρτια As a result of this 'purification of action', tragedy can be pitiful and fearful Although we cannot accept this interpretation and agree that katharsis in the definition should mean the purification of emotions, the katharsis of the tragic emotions necessarily involves katharsis of the action In order for pity and fear to be aroused and then purified, the actions should be pitiful and fearful first The lost second book of Poetics might have comprised a detailed explanation of katharsis as a process from its structural aspect to the purgative effect via purification Another subject expected in the lost second book is the theory of comedy Tractatus Coislinianus may contain a rough sketch of the Aristotelian theory of comedy We can reconstruct the essential part of this theory from scattered references on comedy in the extant Poetics For this purpose, three points should be established (1) Comedy is an imitation of an inferior action As tragic action should not aim at all kinds of superior actions, but only pitiful and fearful ones, comic action should not aim at all kinds of inferior actions, but only the ridiculous This ridiculous is defined in Poetics as αμαρτημα that is neither destructive nor painful In other words, it is an error without παθοζ (2) Comic action should be 'a complete whole with magnitude' Comedy should represent a change of fortune of inferior people from good to bad or bad to good (3) Specific demands of the comic action should be derived from the fact it is an imitation of inferior action In chapter 13, actions of superior people are classified according to (a) its outcome and (b) the ethical character of the hero, as these factors decide the emotional response of the audience Then all patterns except the fall of the 'intermediate' are dismissed as either μιαρον or φιλανθρωπον, nd not proper to tragedy In chapter 14, Aristotle enumerates all possible combinations of pathos, reversal and recognition Only pitiful and fearful combinations (those with reversal and recognition) are not rejected and other combinations are

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