Abstract
As a storytelling species, theatre offers a powerful tool to explore our human nature. Theatre influences us. It affects our brains, especially our emotions. The key to discovering what happens to us while we watch theatre can be analyzed through aesthetic theories—two in particular. One popular theory derives from ancient Greece; the other from ancient India. Ancient Greece provides us with Aristotle and his theory of catharsis while ancient India gives us Bharata Mundi and his theory of rasa. Catharsis and rasa are aesthetic theories that seek to validate or measure the emotional reaction towards a work of art that can change people. Both of them measure this change by outward reactionary signs like crying, or by giving one goosebumps. The time has come for a major paradigm shift in terms of how we understand emotion in theatre. In this paper I compare Aristotle’s Poetics and catharsis to Mundi’s Natyasastra and rasa. A study with broad implications, this comparison reveals the ethnocentric limitations of the dominant theory of catharsis and highlights how an application of rasa creates a more collectivist and instinct driven understanding of theatrical practice.
Included in
Aesthetic Theory in Performance: A Comparative Study on Aristotle's Catharsis and Bharata Mundi's Rasa and Their Applications for Modern Theatre Practices
As a storytelling species, theatre offers a powerful tool to explore our human nature. Theatre influences us. It affects our brains, especially our emotions. The key to discovering what happens to us while we watch theatre can be analyzed through aesthetic theories—two in particular. One popular theory derives from ancient Greece; the other from ancient India. Ancient Greece provides us with Aristotle and his theory of catharsis while ancient India gives us Bharata Mundi and his theory of rasa. Catharsis and rasa are aesthetic theories that seek to validate or measure the emotional reaction towards a work of art that can change people. Both of them measure this change by outward reactionary signs like crying, or by giving one goosebumps. The time has come for a major paradigm shift in terms of how we understand emotion in theatre. In this paper I compare Aristotle’s Poetics and catharsis to Mundi’s Natyasastra and rasa. A study with broad implications, this comparison reveals the ethnocentric limitations of the dominant theory of catharsis and highlights how an application of rasa creates a more collectivist and instinct driven understanding of theatrical practice.