Catharsis In Gibran Khalil Gibran

Gibran Khalil Gibran lived a tempestuous life and, apart from having an important place in the world literature, is undoubtedly the most important name in the Arab migrant literature. He was a strange person with an enthusiastic personality and always had different perspectives on various issues. He was never a person who could easily accept criticism, and he was a unique person. Gibran was a pioneer of a form of literature, and his works, especially The Prophet, were and still are in great demand by readers. Naturally, some reasons occur behind the popularity of his works. With such interesting views as “One who does not write with the blood of one’s heart is a hypocrite,” “One who does not speak sincerely is dishonest,” and “One who does not sing from the heart just shouts,” Gibran fascinated many readers with a variety of feelings. He both provoked and encouraged people, as well as prepared them for catharsis. Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar said, “Whenever I read Tolstoy’s War and Peace, I found myself purified of every little selfish and stupid weakness. There is something in the great writer that washes the human spirit, like sleep.” Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Kafka’s Trial and many other works evoke the same feeling in people when they are read. This article discusses the effect Gibran Khalil Gibran has had on readers and thus reflects on the concept of catharsis, which was put forward by the Hungarian philosopher and literary scientist Georg Lukacs (d. 1971).