A Different Catharsis?

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines Greek tragedy as an alternative model of societal self-reflection. Like our modern institutions of exception—the public memorial, the political apology, and the truth commission—the festival of Greek tragedy was both an institutional anomaly, separated from normal political life, and an indispensable vehicle of collective mourning and reflection. And yet, unlike our modern institutions of exception, where emotional outpouring seems to override critical reflection, it preserved (or appears to have preserved) an intrinsic connection between emotional catharsis and political clarification. This chapter seeks to explain how Greek tragedy functioned as a space of mourning and reflection where citizens were brought to an understanding of political life. It then uses this model to critically reflect on the possibilities of political clarification and learning that are present but not fully realized in the institutions which are now regularly used to come to terms with the past.