Weeping, Witnessing, and the Tragic Audience

Charles Segal’s rich study prompts discussion from many different angles. I begin with his approach to what Aristotle may have meant by catharsis, which at once takes us beyond strict commentary on Aristotelian usage in Poetics and elsewhere and encourages us to range more freely. The broad definition ‘cleansing release’ 1 conveniently incorporates the ideas of purgation and purification and also recalls the importance for Aristotle of the affective function of tragedy in relation to the spectator. This is a helpful way of making catharsis illuminate modern interpretations of tragedy and the tragic, and Segal’s further suggestion, that it should be associated with tragedy’s use of ritual action, is also an attractive one.