Aesthetic disgust is a key component of most classic works of drama because it has much more
potential than to simply shock the audience. This first extensive study on dramatic disgust
places this sensation among pity and fear as one of the core emotions that can achieve
katharsis in drama. The book sets out in antiquity and traces the history of dramatic disgust
through Kant Freud and Kristeva to Sarah Kane's in-yer-face theatre. It establishes a
framework to analyze forms and functions of disgust in drama by investigating its different
cognates (miasma abjection etc.). Providing a concise argument against critics who have
discredited aesthetic disgust as juvenile attention-grabbing Sarah J. Ablett explains how this
repulsive emotion allows theatre to dig deeper into what it means to be human.
