ARISTOTLE`s POETICS

1. ARISTOTLE`s POETICS • MR. R. B. MAHAJAN

2. Aristotle 384-322 B.C. • Greek philosopher: Trained in Plato’s Academy • Wrote the first extant treatise on poetry in the Western tradition: Poetics • Poetics: a fragmentary treatise • Without mentioning Plato’s name or his charges, Aristotle gave a defence

3. Character : A causal element Goodness Propriety True to life, yet more beautiful Consistency Rule of Probability or necessity Deux ex machina ("god from the machine“)

4. Oedipus by Sophocles Oedipus, regarded as one of the ideal tragic heroes. ``Hamartia’’: tragic flaw ``Katharsis’’: Tragedy enables one to leave the theatre ``in calm of mind, all passion spent.’’

5. Recognition • By signs • Invented by the poet • Memory • Reasoning • False inference • Natural Means as in Oedipus

6. Constructing the Plot • Poet should be objective, a spectator to the action to avoid oversight. • Use of appropriate gestures. • Sketch the general outline of the plot and then fill in the episodes. Eg- Odyssey Aristotle here discusses `poetic form’.

7. Parts of a Tragedy • Complication: From beginning of action to turning point • Unraveling/ Denouement: From beginning of the change to the end. • Kinds of Tragedy: Complex, Pathetic, Ethical, Simple • Chorus should be an integral part of the whole.

8. Thought Effect of speech- • Proof and refutation • Exciting feelings of pity and fear • The suggestion of importance or insignificance Incidents speak for themselves, but the speaker has to produce the desired effects.

9. Diction • What is a command, a prayer, a statement, a threat, a question, an answer and so forth.

10. Style • ``The perfection of style is to be clear...’’ • Deviating from the normal to become distinct, while also conforming to common usage for perspicuity. • Styles are: Clear: use of current/ proper words Riddle: use of metaphors Jargon: use of strange words

11. Epic Poetry • Narrative; • Heroic measure: dactylic hexameter • Differs from historical compositions • Single Action: A Beginning, Middle and End • Kinds: simple, complex, ethical, pathetic • Length: Capable of being brought within a single view • Parts: Reversals of the Situation, Recognitions, Scenes of Suffering.

12. Epic Poetry (Ctd…) • ``The poet should speak as little as possible in his own person…’’ • The irrational, the wonderful has wider scope: `the art of telling lies skillfully’.

13. Homer’s Odyssey Homer’s Odyssey recounts the tale of the return of the Greek hero Odysseus from the Trojan War, describing events on the isle of Ithaca during his absence and his ten- year journey home to reclaim his throne and his wife, Penelope. Ulysses in the Cave of Polyphemus This Baroque painting, dated 1630, by the Flemish painter Jacob Jordaens, represents a scene from the story of the Greek hero Odysseus

14. Epic Poetry (Ctd…) Differences from Tragedy: Larger Scale Meter: `heroic measure’- dactylic hexameter Episodic: Many simultaneously occurring events can be presented. The Return of Ulysses This fresco, by the Italian Renaissance artist Pintoricchio, dating from 1509, depicts the homecoming of the Greek hero Odysseus (Roman Ulysses). Penelope is seen at her loom. Corbis/National Gallery Collection

15. Epic and Tragic • Taste of audiences: ``…epic poetry is addressed to a cultivated audience, who do not need gesture; tragedy, to an inferior public.’’ • Histrionic or poetic art, if overdone is in poor taste. • Only action of bad performers need to be condemned. • Tragedy can produce an effect like epic poetry without action.

16. Epic and Tragic (Ctd…) • Tragedy has all the elements of the epic- it can even use the epic meter. • Uses two media- the verbal and the visual. • The effect is more concentrated in a tragedy. • The epic has lesser unity.

17. Defense of Poetry Aristotle defends against objections to poetry on the grounds of it being: • impossible • Irrational • morally hurtful • Contradictory • contrary to artistic correctness Aristotle by Raphael

18. Defense of Poetry (Ctd…) • ``…the poet should prefer probable impossibilities to improbable possibilities.’’ • The impossible must be justified by artistic requirements higher reality: ideal type surpasses reality common opinion (justifies the irrational). ``…the irrational sometimes does not violate reason.’’

19. Defense of Poetry (Ctd…) • The poet imitates: things as they were or are things as they are said or thought to be things as they ought to be. Eg.Sophocles drew men as they ought to be. • Correctness in poetry: Two kinds of errors: those which touch its essence: a poor imitation those which are accidental: a technical error ``..not to know that a hind has two horns is a less serious matter than to paint it inartistically.’’

20. Defense of Poetry (Ctd…) • What is poetically good or bad depends who says it to whom, when, and why-perhaps it is for a greater good. • Ambiguity in meaning of words: we should consider in how many senses a word can be taken. Critics: ``...they pass adverse judgment and then proceed to reason on it…find fault if a thing is inconsistent with their own fancy.’’ • The irrational can be censured if there is no necessity for it to be introduced.

21. Plato and Aristotle: Summing Up • A defense of Plato’s views would entail: • Countering the notion of poetry as inferior because its is an imitation • Showing that the poetic gift is a uniquely significant human faculty • Showing that if poetry arouses passion, it is only to allay it in the long run.

22. Plato and Aristotle: Summing Up (Ctd…)