Abstract
This article investigates the way in which the psychological »turn« of late 19th- and early 20th-century German aesthetics plays out in a wide-ranging discussion - and redefinition - of the classic paradox of tragic joy. In contrast to the understanding of catharsis as affective »discharge «, which has been introduced by 19th-century philologist Jacob Bernays, the proponents of turn-of-the-century psychological aesthetics develop new typologies of tragic feelings designed to distinguish between »pathological « and genuinely aesthetic forms of pleasure. This separation - according to which tragic affects like pity and fear are to be reconceived as merely simulated states of consciousness (Scheingefühle) - serves to negotiate a tension that arises from the two-fold aspiration of aligning aesthetics with the methodological standards of empirical psychology while maintaining its discoursive specificity as an academic discipline in its own right.
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