Aristotles approach in the poetics looks to his personal status, as an outsider in. In that sense, the book s uniqueness is far from being a pure reflection of its original creation or purpose, and is intimately. Only the first part that which focuses on tragedy and epic as a quasidramatic art, given its definition in ch 23. The rhetoric of aristotle with a commentary, revised by. Poetics by aristotle the 140th greatest nonfiction book. Stephen halliwells aristotles poetics is, quite simply, the best book available on that difficult work. It discusses things like unity of plot, reversal of situation, and character in. The plot the precision with which aristotle conducts his analysis of tragic drama is at times almost amusing. Should there have been a polis in aristotles poetics.
Conimbricenses pseudoaristotle views on women aristotles wheel paradox aristotles razor. Aristotles poetics is the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory and first extant philosophical. Poetics by aristotle classical wisdom weekly part 10. Download m4b 34mb download cover art download cd case insert. Aristotle 384322 bc aristotles poetics from the 4th century b. Part i i propose to treat of poetry in itself and of its various kinds, notin. A founding text of european aesthetics and literary criticism, from it stems much of our modern understanding of the creation and impact of imaginative writing, including poetry, drama, and fiction.
This is because halliwells book aristotles poetics does not contain a translation. Welcome to the litcharts study guide on aristotles poetics. 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. Therefore, most of us know the classic structure of all drama but may now choose to watch the drama at the cinema or on tv rather than the theatre. A founding text of european aesthetics and literary criticism, from it stems much of our. Poetics by aristotle 384322 bc translated by ingram bywater 18401914 aristotles poetics from the 4th century b. The poetics is, as far as we know, the first ever work of literary theory. Poetics aristotle 1 poetics aristotle aristotles poetics greek. Buy poetics oxford worlds classics reprint by aristotle, anthony kenny isbn. Butcher poetics1 ii propose to 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.
Poetics aristotle haftad 9780199608362 adlibris bokhandel. A word may likewise be triple, quadruple, or multiple in form, like so. In it, aristotle offers an account of what he calls poetry. It is clear that the general origin of poetry was due to two causes, each of them part of human nature. The poetics combines these two with the idea of imitation. Sayers, aristotle on detective fiction a note on metre. Having thus distinguished the parts, let us now consider the proper construction of the fable or plot, as that is at once the first and the most important thing in tragedy.
All people by nature enjoy a good imitation that is, a picture or drama because they enjoy learning, and imitations help them to learn. Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by project gutenberg. The project gutenberg ebook of poetics, by aristotle. Description aristotles poetics from the 4th century b. Published on sep 10, 2010 note the only reason this is presented super fast in a chipmunk voice was because the video had to be 5 minutes or less for. Poetics is the basis of western drama and is used by playwrights and screenwriters alike and is a standard text book in hollywood. The origins of poetry this chapter introduces the speculative dimension of the poetics, raising the question of the origins of poetry and the role of poetry in human life. New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and. He extensively studied subjects like philosophy, politics, physics, poetry, and biology, and he published over 200 books, likely in. As poetics was not designed for public consumption some aspects are difficult to. 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. Poetics introduction aristotles poetics is probably the most important single book that has ever been written about poetry, both for what it says and for what it has been taken. Please note the image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers.
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. In this chapter, he repeats part of his definition of tragedy, that it is an imitation of an action that is complete, and whole, and of a certain magnitude 52, and goes on to. Introduction note on the texts and translations select bibliography a chronology of aristotle outline of the poeticsfrom plato, republic, books 2, 3, and 10aristotle, poeticsfrom sir philip sidney, an apology for poetryfrom p. This is an exlibrary book and may have the usual libraryused book markings inside. Instead it is a set of notes, possibly lecture notes, compiled for his own use or the use of his students. 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. At some point, aristotles original work was divided in two, each book written on a separate roll of papyrus. Aristotle 384 bce 322 bce, translated by ingram bywater 1840 1914 aristotles poetics from the 4th century b. Part xxi words are of two kinds, simple and double. Butcher in poetics by aristotle, we see the author dissect the various elements of poetry, from why we like it to what a tragedy needs to be any good. From the poetics by aristotle devoted to literary criticism, only the first part mainly dedicated to the tragedy was received. Written in the 4th century bc, it is the work of a scholar who. Chapter 6 chapter 7 chapter 8 chapter 9 chapter 10 chapter 11 chapter 12. By simple i mean those composed of nonsignificant elements, such as ge, earth.
By double or compound, those composed either of a significant and nonsignificant element though within the whole word no element is significant, or of elements that are both significant. The impulse to produce poetry, and the pleasure we take in experiencing poetry, derive from two basic characteristics of. Popular poetry poetics books meet your next favorite book. It discusses things like unity of plot, reversal of situation, and character in the context of greek tragedy, comedy and epic poetry. Aristotles poetics is the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory and first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory. Aristotles poetics is the most influential book on poetry ever written. To further complicate the issue he has also written a translation which is called the poetics of aristotle. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. The internet classics archive poetics by aristotle. Melvyn bragg and his guests discuss aristotles poetics.
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