Everything about Poetics Aristotle totally explained
Aristotle's
Poetics (
Ποιητικός, c.335 BC) aims to give an account of what he calls 'poetry' (for him, the term includes the
lyric, the
epos, and the
drama). Aristotle attempts to explain 'poetry' through 'first principles' and by discerning its different genres and component elements. His analysis of
tragedy constitutes the core of his discussion. "Although Aristotle's
Poetics is universally acknowledged in Western critical tradition,"
Marvin Carlson explains, "almost every detail about his seminal work has aroused divergent opinions."
Core terms
Content of the work
Aristotle taught that poetry could be divided into three genres:
Tragedy,
Comedy, and Epic verse.
Poetics focuses mainly on tragedy, while a second work by Aristotle focusing on comedy has been lost. It has been speculated that the
Tractatus coislinianus was an outline of his lectures on the subject, or notes from a philosopher in the Aristotelian tradition. The work contains the famous hypothesis that comedy originated from "those who lead off the
phallic processions", still common in many towns at the time of Aristotle.
The surviving text of
Poetics is most likely not the entire text. The existing text was most likely
transcribed by one of his students. Evidence suggests the existence of a more complete work. Many of Aristotle's texts were transcribed by his students. The clearest example of this is
Nicomachean Ethics which is named after
Nicomachus who is credited with editing the text. However, it's also possible that the name of the "Nicomachean Ethics" derives from Aristotle's father,
Nicomachus, whom he credits for much of his early understanding of ethics.
The centerpiece of Aristotle's surviving work is his examination of
tragedy:
» :
Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that's serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper catharsis of these emotions.
This work combined with the
Rhetoric make up Aristotle's works on
aesthetics.
Influence of the work
Poetics wasn't influential in its time, and was generally understood to coincide with the more famous
Rhetoric. This is because in Aristotle's time, rhetoric and poetry were not as separated as they later became and were in a sense different versions of the same thing. In later times,
Poetics became hugely influential. The conception of tragedy during the
Enlightenment especially owes much to
Poetics.
The Arabic version of Aristotle’s
Poetics that influenced the Middle Ages was translated from a Greek manuscript dating from before the year 700. This manuscript was transmitted from Greek to Syriac and is independent of the currently accepted eleventh-century source designated “Paris 1741.”
The Syriac 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.
There are two different Arabic interpretations of Aristotle’s
Poetics in commentaries by
Abu Nasr al-Farabi and
Averroes (for example, Abu al-Walid Ibn Rushd).
Al-Farabi’s treatise endeavors to establish poetry as a logical faculty of expression, giving it validity in the Islamic world. Averroes’ commentary attempts to harmonize his assessment of the
Poetics with al-Farabi’s, but he's ultimately unable to reconcile his ascription of moral purpose to poetry with al-Farabi’s logical interpretation.
However, Averroes' interpretation of the
Poetics was accepted by the West because of its relevance to their humanistic viewpoints, and at times, the philosophers of the Middle Ages even preferred Averroes’ commentary over Aristotle's actual meaning. This resulted in the survival of Aristotle’s
Poetics through the Arabic literary tradition.
Another, written in 1947 and published in "The Book of Abstract Poems" went something like this:
» The appreciation of Julian
How he smiles like a moron » How the sun rises on a world
that hates him so » How harsh the wind doth blow
across his putrid face...
In popular culture
The Poetics -- both the existent first book and the lost second book -- figure prominently in Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Poetics Aristotle'.
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