Catharsis as Persuasion-An Enthymematic Approach to the Aristotelian Tragedy

Abstract

Although critics such as Jeffery Walker and Thomas Cole have elaborated on the correspondence between rhetoric and poetics by way of Aristotle, studies devoted to the Aristotelian tragedy have been inattentive to the interrelatedness between rhetorical persuasion and tragic catharsis. Therefore, this paper purposes to argue that catharsis is a concept integral to how Aristotle conceives of rhetoric by way of dialectic. In other words, with all its emotive connotations, catharsis is profoundly a logical notion: ideally, playwrights of tragedy arouse and purge pity and fear under the aegis of reason. Of particular concern is the role of the rhetorical enthymeme (an informal syllogism) in achieving cathartic effect. Aristotle's endeavor to solemnize poetic creations thus crystallizes. This paper then clarifies the status of poetics in the Greek rhetorical tradition, expounds the relation of the Aristotelian tragedy to logic, and specifically explores the enthymematic reasoning that underlies catharsis. Such a rhetorical approach may contextualize Aristotle's catharsis in a historicized framework and supplement related studies that have long been confined to elusive interpretations such as purgation, purification, and clarification.