Infection and Catharsis: From «Consanguineous Infections» to «Emotive Infections»

Abstract

This essay observes, in the light of dramatic paradigms, the use of the symbolic imagery of infection/contamination in relation to the ‘phraseology’ and theorising of catharsis (purgation, purification), employed and especially elaborated by the complicated experience of classic and classicistic tragedies, all the while multifocally taking into account a rich – vast as well as important – critical tradition, including but not limited to the literary field. The essay follows the construction of such imagery from its creation (with the ancient Greek civilization) to its modern developing (during the Enlightenment), at both conceptual and linguistical levels, first of all paying attention to ‘broad-spectrum’ cultural-historical and textual perspectives (anthropology, medicine, law, rhetoric...), in addition to – and beyond – the literary-dramaturgical point of view.