Proceedings of the 2024 4th International Conference on Education, Language and Art (ICELA 2024)

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Literature as a Cause of or Cure for Melancholia

——A Case Study of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther

Authors
Zhuo Qiu1, *
1School of Literature, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, 710119, Shaanxi, China
*Corresponding author. Email: 772095646@qq.com
Corresponding Author
Zhuo Qiu
Available Online 17 March 2025.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-364-1_88How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Melancholia; catharsis; Goethe; The Sorrows of Young Werther
Abstract

The Sorrows of Young Werther could be evaluated in its therapeutic effect on melancholia as a classical literary text. To access this therapeutic effect, this essay traces back to Aristotle’s conception of catharsis and attempts to identify the elements that could contribute to the catharsis of the audience in both texts. As it is suggested by Matthew Bell, ‘the underlying aim of most of the psychological treatments was to purge or purify the bodily system,’[1] this essay attempts to interpret how the text leads to the purgation of an audience’s ‘fear and sadness’ during their reading process. Through the illustration of the such process, this essay also intends to point out the threat of melancholia for a potential melancholic because the purgation process also implies a kind of stimulation and imbalance. Once the purgation process is blocked at the stage of stimulation, it will constitute as a cause of melancholia.

Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2024 4th International Conference on Education, Language and Art (ICELA 2024)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
17 March 2025
ISBN
978-2-38476-364-1
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-364-1_88How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Zhuo Qiu
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/03/17
TI  - Literature as a Cause of or Cure for Melancholia
BT  - Proceedings of the 2024 4th International Conference on Education, Language and Art (ICELA 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 707
EP  - 711
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-364-1_88
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-364-1_88
ID  - Qiu2025
ER  -