Poetics (Magill Book Reviews)
At a glance:
- Author: Aristotle
- First Published: 1705
- Type of Work: Philosophy/Literary Theory
- Genres: Criticism, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Essays
- Subjects: Literature, Art or artists, Poetry or poets, Tragedy, Drama or dramatists, Comedy, Greece or Greek people
Plato, who was Aristotle’s teacher, had criticized poetry as both subversive (the Greek myths were full of immorality) and delusive. The carpenter copied the concept of the table; the artist’s picture of the table was only a copy of a copy. Hence poets were liars, and should be banished from an ideal commonwealth. Without mentioning Plato directly, the POETICS answers both charges.
The key term of Aristotle’s answer is plot. The plot of a tragedy or epic is a means of ordering the chaos of events and exploring their meaning. In this sense, poetry does not merely imitate...
[The entire page is 1284 words long]
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