Literature as a Function of Aristotelian Catharsis: A Study in Relation to

specifically, the crux between the two meanings holds the notion of catharsis as a medical purgation of excessive emotions on the one hand, and the ceremonial purification of the body on the other. In more liberal terms, purgation of emotions deals with the physical or non-moral, while the moralistic element of purification of the soul comes in the other. Aristotle‟s notion of catharsis was extensively applied to poetry and tragedy, and explored the effects of how spectators ‟ emotions such as pity and fear are cleansed through characters on stage. The argument of this study is that the body of Literature, as a whole, is a matrix in which both the writers and the readers or spectators, relentlessly purge their emotions and purify their souls. In other words, the very act of generating a poem, writing a novel or a piece of drama is a metaphor used by the authors, wherein writers dress characters to vent their views, emotions, likes and dislikes. Alternatively, this production purifies their souls. For the reader or the spectator, Literature is more close to the original sense of the word catharsis mentioned on the onset. The aim of this study is to explore the notion of catharsis providing examples from a selected work of literature, namely Salman Rushdie‟s Shame