Retheorizing Aristotle’s Catharsis: The Role of Memories in Narrating and Purging Emotions

‘Do memories provide cathartic release for the conscious/unconscious conflict operating in the psyche of the migratory/diasporic subjects?’ This question, though difficult to answer, is vehemently raised by eminent diasporic writers Jean Rhys, Gloria Naylor, and Joan Riley, as is reflected in their writings Voyage in the Dark (1934), The Women of Brewster Place (1982), and Waiting in the Twilight (1987) respectively. Using Aristotle’s metaphor ‘catharsis’ outside of theatre and its basic definition, we retheorize this notion as a cathartic tool in these diasporic fictions and examine how memory serves a psychological purpose and brings about therapeutic change among migrants, ultimately facilitating them to re-contextualize themselves within the diasporic space. The major occupation of this chapter is to examine both the cathartic effects of memory as well as the ways in which Rhys, Naylor, and Riley employ this literary device as a psychological mechanism that provides their female characters a source of sustenance in difficult circumstances.