The Powers of Catharsis: Aestheticizing Freudian Taboos through Negative Empathy

Negative empathy is a destabilizing aesthetic experience which consists in empathizing with immoral and seductive characters portrayed in a fascinating, yet disturbing fashion. Drawing from cognitive, philosophical and narrative theories, this paper identifies the protective distance provided by aesthetic representation as a prerequisite for the conversion of the tragic or unsettling emotions stirred by negative empathy into aesthetic enjoyment. As a result, I argue that the cathartic potential enabled by literary negative empathy with fictional characters or atmospheres allows for the aesthetization and consequent sublimation of the otherwise repressed major taboos described by Freud in Totem and Taboo. Through analysis of some excerpts from Ágota Kristóf’s The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie and Angela Carter’s short story “The Snow Child,” the paper shows how narratives involving parricide and incest possibly allow readers to confront repression, and how the literary presentation of these narratives contributes to readers’ emotional engagement and aesthetic enjoyment of what would otherwise be deeply disturbing subject matter.