Purgation and catharsis: an ambiguous literary theme in the literature of the Siglo de Oro

Abstract

A reading of the excellent book by J. Pigeaud and the many testimonies on this subject available in the literature of the Siglo de Oro prompted the author of this article to investigate the question of catharsis in the Spanish literature of the time. Catharsis is an ambiguous concept used for the purgat ion of both the soul and the body-burdened by excessive humours. While French literature concentrated primarily on the comic or burlesque aspects of the question, Spanish literature —theatre, poetry, essay, novel— used it to illustrate more complex reflections and presented it as a panacea for preserving health and facing the day-to-day concerns of an anxious mankind, in both metaphorical and métonymie terms. Through literary examples of different types, particularly from the Autos sacramentales, this article contemplates the issues involved and brings to light the debt of the Siglo de Oro to Hippocratic and Aristotelian thought in accepting and diversifying a tradition that persists to this day, preserved by a terminology deserving of semantic study.