CATHARSIS THERAPY IN THE 17th CENTURY ENGLISH DRAMA: A CASE STUDY OF R. BROME’S COMEDY “THE ANTIPODES”

Abstract

The paper regards catharsis therapeutic application as a theme of the 17th century English drama: a case study of Brome’s play “The Antipodes” (1637– 1638), never being in focus of Russian literary criticism. Catharsis is a central concept of drama especially in its scenic presentation. The resemblance of personal experiences to those in a play can provoke strong cathartic emotions, causing spectator’s purification and mental balance. The 20th century psychology used this effect as a “psychodrama” method for treating patients with mental disorders. Its essence is in transforming patients into actors of a dramatic piece reminding them their traumas, the emotions resulted proceed with cathartic cleansing of the painful symptoms. The paper discusses in detail the first use of the “psychodrama” method in the 17th-century English comedy “The Antipodes”. The play’s theme is the characters’ mental disorder featured with despondency and insanity healed by doctor Huball’s method of making the unsuspecting patients act in a performance (“inner play”) of an artificially created “antipodean” world of disorder similar to their overturned consciousness. The patients’ rejection of the “antipodean” world brings in strong cathartic emotions causing the characters’ mental health. The play’s analysis shows that the author exceeds the limits of the avant-garde catharsis therapy theme. The play passes his concern about the disease of the English society facing serious upheavals. It aims at bringing all his spectators in catharsis in order to heal the English world’s disease and let common sense triumph over the existing disorder and madness.