Recursive Pathos: A Rasa-Theoretic Formalism for the Clown-Mask in Böll and Rushdie

Abstract This article proposes a structuralist comparative analysis of the "clown-mask" as a diagnostic tool for institutional hypocrisy in Heinrich Böll’s Ansichten eines Clowns (1963) and Salman Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown (2005). Utilizing the classical Sanskrit framework of Rasa Theory (Natyashastra), the study maps the transition of the protagonists—Hans Schnier and Noman Sher—from an aesthetic "Golden Mean" to the detrimental extremes of Shanta (Quietism) and Raudra (Fury). Originally conceptualized in 2008, this longitudinal study serves as the primary record of this interdisciplinary architecture, asserting the sovereignty of the aesthetic over localized institutional constraints.