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Aristotle's Poetics aims to give an account of poetry. Aristotle does this by attempting to explain poetry through first principles[1], and by classifying poetry into its different genres and component parts. Aristotle (Greek: Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ...
The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poiesis, a making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ...
The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poiesis, a making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ...
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. In general usage a tragedy is a play, movie or sometimes a real world event with a sad outcome. ...
Comedy has a classical meaning (comical theatre) and a popular one (the use of humour with an intent to provoke[[ laughter in general). ...
The Tractatus coislinianus is a manuscript outlining a theory of comedy in the tradition of the Poetics 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.[2] However, it is 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. Transcription is the conversion into written, typewritten or printed form, of a spoken language source, such as the proceedings of a court hearing. ...
Nicomachean Ethics (sometimes spelled Nichomachean), or Ta Ethika, is a work by Aristotle on virtue and moral character which plays a prominent role in defining Aristotelian ethics. ...
Nicomachus (Gr. ...
The centerpiece of Aristotle's surviving work is his examination of tragedy: In general usage a tragedy is a play, movie or sometimes a real world event with a sad outcome. ...
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- Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is 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.[3]
This work combined with the Rhetoric make up Aristotle's works on aesthetics. Catharsis is the Greek Katharsis word meaning purification or cleansing derived from the ancient Greek gerund καθαίÏειν transliterated as kathairein to purify, purge, and adjective katharos pure or clean (ancient and modern Greek: καθαÏός). // The term in drama refers to a sudden emotional breakdown or climax that constitutes overwhelming feelings of great...
Aristotles Rhetoric (or Ars Rhetorica, or The Art of Rhetoric or Treatise on Rhetoric) places the discipline of public speaking in the context of all other intellectual pursuits at the time. ...
The Parthenons facade showing an interpretation of golden rectangles in its proportions. ...
Influence of the work Poetics was not 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 Age of Enlightenment (French: ; German: ) was an eighteenth-century movement in European and American philosophy, or the longer period including the Age of Reason. ...
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.[4]
There are two different Arabic interpretations of Aristotle’s Poetics in commentaries by Abu Nasr al-Farabi and Averroes (i.e., Abu al-Walid Ibn Rushd). Al Farabi (870-950) was born of a Turkish family and educated by a Christian physician in Baghdad, and was himself later considered a teacher on par with Aristotle. ...
Ibn Rushd, known as Averroes (1126 – December 10, 1198), was an Andalusian-Arab philosopher and physician, a master of philosophy and Islamic law, mathematics, and medicine. ...
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 is 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.
In popular culture The Poetics -- both the extant first book and the lost second book -- figure prominently in Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose. Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932) is an Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa) and his many essays. ...
The Name of the Rose, a novel by Umberto Eco, is a murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327. ...
Notes
References
Primary sources
In Greek
In English translation Thomas Twining (born January 8, 1735 in Twickenham, London, England; died August 6, 1804 at Colchester) was an English classical scholar. ...
Samuel Henry Butcher, MP (16 April 1850 – 29 December 1910) was a Dublin born classical scholar and, in his final years, an English politician. ...
Ingram Bywater (27 June 1840 - 1914) was an English classical scholar. ...
Other translation Seven parallel translations of Poetics: russian, english, french
Secondary sources - Ari Hiltunen, 2001, Aristotle in Hollywood, Intellect Books, ISBN 1-84150-060-7
- Hardison, O.B., Jr. “Averroes.” Medieval Literary Criticism: Translations and Interpretations. New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co. 1987. 81-88.
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