Literature Types: Nature of Dramatic Catharsis?

[darkstar]

Following these movie threads from as detached a place as possible.

After much reading, I do have some questions.

Is a movie such as the one widely under discussion cathartic in the truest literary sense?

Does a movie/narrative have to be a true literary tragedy--Antigone, etc.--in order to produce catharsis?

I ask this b/c it is my (simple) understanding that catharsis releases emotions in the audience. They come away with a deeper understanding of their own imperfections and watching the projection, so to speak, of the hero figure meet their downfall relieves psycological distress in the viewer.

In short, can a movie such as the one in question free pscyic distress in a truly cathartic--and what I always took to be healthy--way? If not, why not? Is it somehow the opposite of catharsis--i.e., further penting up emotion--as some have suggested? If so, in dramatic terms (rather than soley from audience viewpoint)why?

This seems to me to be one of principle questions underpinning many of the discussions here.

[Burma Jones]

1. Terror and Pity bring about Catharsis

Tragedy is built aroung these two emotions, but doesn't own them.

[_Wayne_]

2. A tragedy produces catharsis, but catharsis is not dependent on the tragic

Shakespeare, in my opinion, never wrote a tragedy. In their purest sense, his "tragedies" were melodramas; yet they all produced a catharsis. Going further, tragedies all have a tragic denouement, final, upsetting, but seemingly "right" end result-not all Shakespeare melodramas contained this, or any popular dramas from the Renaissance, Romantic or Victorian. Therefore, one may assume no tragedies have been written since the ancient Greeks.

[darkstar]

3. Thanks

You 2 seem to be in agreement re: catharsis not exlusive to tragedy. Thanks for the clarity on that point.

Now, if a play doe produce catharsis, what is the audience's reaction? Is emotional energy dissiapted at play's *completeion*? Or is it increased?