PoeticsAristotle's Poetics is one of the most powerful, perceptive and influential works of criticism in Western literary history. A penetrating, near-contemporary account of Greek tragedy, it demonstrates how the elements of plot, character and spectacle combine to produce 'pity and fear' - and why we derive pleasure from this apparently painful process. It introduces the crucial concepts of mimesis ('imitation'), hamartia ('error') and katharsis, which have informed serious thinking about drama ever since. It examines the mythological heroes, idealized yet true to life, whom Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides brought on to the stage. And it explains how the most effective plays rely on complication and resolution, recognitions and reversals. Essential reading for all students of Greek literature and of the many Renaissance and post-Renaissance writers who consciously adopted Aristotle as a model, the Poetics is equally stimulating for anyone interested in theatre today. |
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acroamatic action actors actually Aeschylus appears Aris Aristophanes Aristotle Aristotle means artistic beginning better Bywater catharsis century character choral chorus clause comic poets composed composition dialogues dithyramb dramatic elegiac couplets elements emotional Empedocles epic poetry epic verse episodes Euripides example fact finest tragedy foreign words genres Giorgio Valla grammatikos Greek text happens Hence hexameter Homer human iambic trimeter Icarius Iliad imitation inserted Iphigenia Kassel kind language length mentioned metaphor modes moral narrative nature non-meaningful noun Odyssey Oedipus omitted Orestes passage pathos peripety and recognition persons phrase pity and fear Plato play pleasure plot poems poetry poets Polygnotus Polyidus possible Protagoras reference regular word rhythm sense sentence simple single song Sophocles species speech story structure Theodectes things thought tion totle's tragedy and comedy tragic act translation tying utterance verb verbal expression virtue visual adornment whole Xenarchus ΙΟ