Transformative Katharsis: The Significance of Theophrastus's Botanical Works for Interpretations of Dramatic Catharsis

Abstract

This analysis of the use of members of the 'katharsis' word-group in Theophrastus's botanical works points to a meaning of 'katharsis' and a related interpretation of dramatic catharsis that is a plausible reading of Aristotle supported by the work of one of his students.1 Theophrastus (372-287 BCE) was one of the more prominent students of Aristotle. He came from Eresus, on the island of Lesvos. In Aristotle's school, the Lyceum, Theophrastus specialized in botany. He wrote at length on how plants and trees grow and reproduce and how they have been cultivated, and he led the Lyceum for over thirty years after Aristotle's death. I am not proposing that Theophrastus meant for readers to derive interpretations of drama from his botanical studies. Nor am I arguing that he always used these words with the same meaning. However, in his accounts of pruning, he uses these words in a distinctive and coherent manner, which, I propose, constitutes a meaning of the term 'katharsis' and sheds light on the well-worn topic of how to interpret Aristotle's remarks about katharsis in the Poetics. First, I will explain some implications of understanding 'katharsis' as pruning by setting out Theophrastus's use of 'katharsis'-related terms in De Causis Plantarum (CP) and Historia Plantarum (HP). I will then provide an account of three interrelated meanings of 'katharsis', including: (1) a habituation that transforms and matures one's nature, a therapeia; (2) a maturing that directs one away from harmful extremes; and (3) a maturing directed by channeling the motivations that cause growth, not by purging them. I will refer to similar meanings in Aristotle's works as I discuss them in Theophrastus. F r this article, I will not discuss the main interpretations of catharsis in detail, but I will briefly set transformative katharsis in the context of some historically prominent interpretations. When the three meanings of 'katharsis' are applied to drama, they imply the involvement of the audience in the experience of katharsis. Because of this involvement, transformative katharsis does not support aesthetic or structural interpretations, such as that of Gerald Else. Many other interpretations also call for a katharsis involving the audience, however, so we need to distinguish them carefully. One of the more prominent interpretations, the medical or purgative interpretation (advanced by Jacob Bernays, among others), describes an audience of tragic drama that experiences a release of pent-up emotions.2 According to this interpretation, unhealthy emotions (Aristotle focuses on pity and fear) accumulate in individuals and become uncomfortable, if not dangerous, unless they are released in a careful manner. The katharsis is the releasing or purging of these emotions. As such, at least on a superficial level, the purgative interpretation resembles the transformative in that it implies a kind of therapy. But as Stephen Halliwell notes, in commenting on Bernays and other proponents of the