Catarsi a teatro? Momenti di pensiero anti-aristotelico nella filosofia antica

Abstract

Now widely regarded as one of the most important contributions to thinking about theatre, Aristotle’s notion of theatrical catharsis was not immediately well received. This essay examines its critical reception in five representatives of Greek anti-Aristotelianism: the comic poet Timocles, the Epicurean Philodemus, and the Platonists Iamblichus, Proclus, and Olympiodorus. It focuses on three lines of attack: 1. the doubt that theatre is an art that purifies through mimesis; 2. the charge that Aristotle wrongly assumes every human soul is naturally prone to harmful passions; 3. the denial that theatre truly shapes character or leads spectators to virtue.