[*]: Generally agreed to be spurious
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[†]: Authenticity disputed |
Aristotle's Poetics (Greek: Περὶ ποιητικῆς; Latin: De Poetica;[1] c. 335 BC[2]) is the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory and first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory[3] This has been the traditional view for centuries. However, recent work is now challenging whether Aristotle focuses on literary theory per se (given that not one poem exists in the treatise) or whether he focuses instead on dramatic musical theory that only has language as one of the elements.[4]
Poetics by Aristotle in DOC, FB2, FB3 download e-book. Aristotle was born at Stagira, in the dominion of the kings of Macedonia, in 384 BC. (the moral life). In the Politics, Aristotle holds that, by nature, humans form political associations, and he explores the best forms these may take. For Aristotle's aesthetic views, which are set forth in the Poetics, see tragedy.
In it, Aristotle offers an account of what he calls 'poetry' (a term that derives from a classical Greek term, ποιητής, that means 'poet; author; maker' and in this context includes verse drama – comedy, tragedy, and the satyr play – as well as lyric poetry and epic poetry). They are similar in the fact that they are all imitations but different in the three ways that Aristotle describes:
In examining its 'first principles', Aristotle finds two: 1) imitation and 2) genres and other concepts by which that of truth is applied/revealed in the poesis. His analysis of tragedy constitutes the core of the discussion.[5] Although Aristotle's Poetics is universally acknowledged in the Western critical tradition, 'almost every detail about his seminal work has aroused divergent opinions'.[6]
The work was lost to the Western world for a long time. It was available in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance only through a Latin translation of an Arabic version written by Averroes.[7]
Aristotle's work on aesthetics consists of the Poetics,Politics (Bk VIII) and Rhetoric.[8][9][10] The Poetics is specifically concerned with drama. At some point, Aristotle's original work was divided in two, each 'book' written on a separate roll of papyrus.[11] Only the first part – that which focuses on tragedy and epic (as a quasi-dramatic art, given its definition in Ch 23) – survives. The lost second part addressed comedy.[11] Some scholars speculate that the Tractatus coislinianus summarises the contents of the lost second book.[12] Some other scholars indicate that 'tragedy' is a very misleading translation for the Greek tragoidos, which seems to have meant 'goat-song' originally. The reason is that Aristotle says three times in the treatise that the protagonist can go from fortune to misfortune or misfortune to fortune; also in Chapter 14 the best type of tragoidos is that which ends happily, like Cresphontes and Iphigenia (presumably 'in Tauris')![13]
The table of contents page of the Poetics found in Modern Library's Basic Works of Aristotle (2001) identifies five basic parts within it.[14]
Aristotle distinguishes between the genres of 'poetry' in three ways:
Having examined briefly the field of 'poetry' in general, Aristotle proceeds to his definition of tragedy:
Tragedy is a representation of a serious, complete action which has magnitude, in embellished speech, with each of its elements [used] separately in the [various] parts [of the play] and [represented] by people acting and not by narration, accomplishing by means of pity and terror the catharsis of such emotions.
By 'embellished speech', I mean that which has rhythm and melody, i.e. song. By 'with its elements separately', I mean that some [parts of it] are accomplished only by means of spoken verses, and others again by means of song (1449b25-30).[20]
He then identifies the 'parts' of tragedy:
He offers the earliest-surviving explanation for the origins of tragedy and comedy:
Anyway, arising from an improvisatory beginning (both tragedy and comedy—tragedy from the leaders of the dithyramb, and comedy from the leaders of the phallic processions which even now continue as a custom in many of our cities) [...] (1449a10-13)[22]
The Arabic version of Aristotle's Poetics that influenced the Middle Ages was translated from a Greek manuscript dated to some time prior to the year 700. This manuscript, translated from Greek to Syriac, is independent of the currently-accepted 11th-century source designated Paris 1741. The Syriac-language source used for the Arabic translations departed widely in vocabulary from the original Poetics and it initiated a misinterpretation of Aristotelian thought that continued through the Middle Ages.[23]Paris 1741 appears online at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France).[24]
Arabic scholars who published significant commentaries on Aristotle's Poetics included Avicenna, Al-Farabi and Averroes.[25] Many of these interpretations sought to use Aristotelian theory to impose morality on the Arabic poetic tradition.[26] In particular, Averroes added a moral dimension to the Poetics by interpreting tragedy as the art of praise and comedy as the art of blame.[27]Averroes' interpretation of the Poetics was accepted by the West, where it reflected the 'prevailing notions of poetry' into the 16th century.[28]
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