Content wise, i think this book is great, but it was just so very boring. The subject of this weeks seminar reading was the works of plato and aristotle, the former being a teacher of the latter. Aristotles poetics is the most influential book on tragedy ever written. Jacques ranciere refers to aristotle, claiming that according to the ancient. The conclusion above, while perhaps poetic, is politically unsatis factory. Only the first part that which focuses on tragedy and epic as a quasidramatic art, given its definition in ch 23. Both had a huge amount of influence to todays politics around the world thinking about how societies and communities should work. Book ii treats the objects of imitation and book iii discusses the mode of imitation.
On the other hand, in the poetics, aristotle fairly praises imitation as. At some point, aristotle s original work was divided in two, each book written on a separate roll of papyrus. Even if history were cast into the same kind of meter as is used in tragedy, aristotle argues, it would only be history in verse. Poetics has been divided into the following sections. Unfortunately, it is one of only thirty one surviving treatises by aristotle of over two hundred he wrote. Melvyn bragg and his guests discuss aristotles poetics. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of politics and what it means.
Polygnotus depicted men as nobler than they are, pauson as less noble, dionysius drew them true to life. Here, walter watson offers a new interpretation of the lost second book of aristotles poetics. In book viii of the politics, aristotle speaks of the educative value of visual. Imitation is natural to man from childhood, one of his advantages over the lower animals being this, that he is the most imitative creature in the world, and learns at first by imitation. Aristotles poetics, perhaps the most fundamental theoretical treatise on tragedy. Poetry has medicinal qualities in ly as a utopia, as an allegory of th. The poetics of aristotle ness being the distinguishing marks of moral differences, it follows that we must represent men either as better than in real life, or as worse, or as they are.
He begins by considering forms of government and their implications, the most important of which is that they involve some form of sharing. What is poetry, how many kinds of it are there, and what are their specific effects. Aristotle s poetics is the most influential book on poetry ever written. Section 1 44k section 2 41k section 3 44k download. By nature, man is a political animal, one naturally fitted for life in a polis or state. So, the question is how far should they go and this leads him to consider some of the most radical and wellknown proposals. Aristotles politics is a key document in western political thought.
Malcolm heaths introduction fills almost half the book but he truly captures the essence of poetics. Aristotles poetics is the earliestsurviving work of dramatic theory and the first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory. This complete text of the the poetics book by aristotle, translated by ingram bywater, with a preface by gilbert murray, is in the public domain. At some point, aristotles original work was divided in two, each book written on a separate roll of papyrus. Summary slavery exists in utopia, but the slaves are prisoners of war taken in battle or criminals, who are sentenced to slavery.
Aristotle writes also that he will address catharsis and an analysis of what is funny. In book ii he launches a sharp attack on platos two utopias, the. Some are criminals who have been sentenced to death in other countries and who are bought by utopian merchants. In these first two books aristotle shows his complete mastery of political theory and practice, and raises many crucial issues still with us today.
The poetics is, as far as we know, the first ever work of literary theory. Its the debate between aristotle in the rhetoric and plato in. Most literary criticism combines poetics and hermeneutics in a single analysis. For some 20 years aristotle was platos student and colleague at the academy in athens, an institution for philosophical, scientific, and mathematical research and. Other slaves are the poor of other countries, who prefer the life of a slave in utopia to that of a pauper in their own country. Aristotle s poetics i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii xiii xiv xv xvi xvii imitation the common principle of the arts of poetry. Aristotles poetics is the most influential book on poetry ever written.
Poetics is not a book that was prepared and polished for publication. The poetics of aristotle 335 bce is the earliest surviving treatise of dramatic theory and the first philosophy of literary theory from the west that influenced centuries of philosophers ever since. It is only less difficult to write a popular book about the poetics ofaristotle than to write one about the elements ofeuclid. What is the main ideas of aristotles literary criticism as presented in his book poetics. Aristotle, poetics, section 1453a tufts university. Aristotle tells us that the laws is later than the republic, pol. The slippage of the meaning of mimesis is carried over into book x to include. In the poetics, aristotle is primarily concerned with analysis of. Buy poetics penguin classics book online at low prices. Poetics by aristotle 384322 bc translated by ingram bywater 18401914 aristotles poetics from the 4th century b.
It is clear that the general origin of poetry was due to two causes, each of them part of human nature. Havelock senses in these two overlapping meanings of imitation platos. Plato on utopia stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. As the shortest book ive got on my literature student bookshelf, this dover thrift edition poetics is the cheapest, and most flimsy, but completely worthwhile book. Greek was very much a live language, and a language still unconscious of grammar, not, like ours, dominated by definitions and trained upon dictionaries. Poetics by aristotle classical wisdom weekly part 2. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans. Open utopia by stephen duncombe is licensed under a creative commons. Politics, as the about this book blurb says, but aristotles poetics. Philosophy summary the learned men of utopia are given to disputing over various questions of moral philosophy, but their chief concern is in trying to determine the source and nature of happiness. The internet classics archive poetics by aristotle.
I gave these works of aristotle a four star rating based entirely on the politics book and not the poetics book. Theres no introduction to the book, just a note about when it was written circa 330bc and about aristotle himself, taking up less than a page. Long forgotten by commentators, it nevertheless had a great influence, since aristotles poetics has given birth to three concepts crucial for psychology, social sciences, and philosophy of art. Aristotle gives his views on tragedy, the plot, the characters and the content, and then it is compared to epic poetry. Quite a few comments have been posted about poetics. In this article, tragedy and utopia are juxtaposed, and it is proposed that the problem of. But he does not actually address any of those ideas. It has been a standard book for literary criticism since centuries. Aristotle s work on aesthetics consists of the poetics, politics bk viii and rhetoric.
The island of utopia is in the middle two hundred miles broad, and holds. Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by project gutenberg. Although aristotles ideal regime discussed in books seven and eight of his. From the poetics by aristotle devoted to literary criticism, only the first part mainly dedicated to the tragedy was received. It is a beautifully written piece which explores concepts such as music, rhythm and harmony. Aristotle does not, however, decide on whether tragedy and by. Aristotle, poetics, section 1454a tufts university. Two other unique features are jankos translations with notes of both the tractatus coislinianus, which is argued to be a summary of the lost second book of the poetics, and fragments of aristotles dialogue on poets, including recently discovered texts about catharsis, which appear in english for the first time. The remainder of book i is devoted to a discussion of the different media of imitation. The book is an anthology, introducing an number of commentators on the drama, from aristotle onto the early 20 th century, and including substantial excerpts from their writings.
It is especially popular with screenwriters as seen in many script gurus howto books. In modern democratic societies the answer to this question is simple. A founding text of european aesthetics and literary criticism, it has shaped much of our modern understanding of the creation and impact of imaginative writing, including poetry, drama, and fiction. How should we decide who is to hold office and exercise power. Poetics is the earliest known work of literary criticism. It discusses things like unity of plot, reversal of situation, and character in the context of greek tragedy, comedy and epic poetry. So, the question is how far should they go and this leads him to consider some of the most radical and wellknown proposals made by. Yet i trust the following pages give an intelligible account of what aristotle tried to say in his book on poetry, and how writers in various ages have reacted to his thoughts. Part of the discussion of poetry in book 2 deals with its content. The book is divided into short, fragmented sections that deals with every aspect of drama, poetry and epic.
In book i he argues vigorously for a political theory based on nature. This brief volume brims with aristotle s timeless insights into such. The medium of imitation the three basic media which aristotle recognizes are rhythm, language, and harmony. Platos utopian republic and aristotles politics ben webb. The poetics is probably quite useful to a person interested in writing any type of literature or work of drama for stage or screen but my knowledge of something like that is extremely limited at best. I proposeto treat of poetry in itself and of its various kinds, noting the essential quality of each, to inquire into the structure of the plot as requisite to a good poem. Poetry and history since life is not a plot, it is not sufficient for a poet simply to record events as they happen. Based on richard jankos philological reconstruction of. In this book aristotle s aim is to look at different states, particularly those that pass good laws and are well governed. Such a structure might satisfy our feelings but it arouses neither pity nor fear, the one being for the man who does not deserve his misfortune and the other for the man who is like ourselvespity for the undeserved misfortune, fear for the man like ourselvesso that the result will arouse neither.
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