Consider Aristotle's contribution to the art of criticism.
Aristotle without a doubt is the first great critic. He is the father of subsequent literary criticism. He was the torchbearer of criticism. He was the first scientific crític as he approached literature with the spirit of a scientist. He said down certain rules. So penetrating were his observations and so universal their appeal that critics and creative artists in the following centuries dared not violate his rules.
His directions and suggestions became touchstones of all arts, a criterion for judgment. In the succeeding years, critics all over the world tested art on the anvil of Aristotle's ' Poetics ' and pronounced their Judgement accordingly. Anybody violating those rules was decried to be literary licentious and outrageous. Thus began classical criticism which believed in judging works of creative artists who behaved like schoolmasters.
Besides this strict conformity to the rules of Poetics, they believed that the primary aim of all arts is didactic and entertainment can only be admitted into second place. They emphasized form as well as balance, order and proportion in poetry. Aristotle approached literature with the spirit of a scientist. He discovered those fundamentals of literature and various kinds which have become ' some of the greatest doctrines of criticism.
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| Consider Aristotle's contribution to the art of criticism. |
Aristotle exonerated poetry and art from the charge of Plato that poetry was an imitation of an imitation. His interpretation of imitation was exclusively his own. He discovered that each literary kind has its ' peculiar pleasure '. He also confirmed the place of poetry in history.
Saintsbury holds " Though his definition of tragedy has been a subject of much controversy, yet on the other hand, the widest changes of style in drama have only established more solidly his doctrine that the essence of tragic situation consists, not so much in a crime or in mere misfortune as in a certain ' failing ' or ' frailty ', perhaps not very bad in itself, but leading in some cases to crime, in all to misfortune.
" J. W. H. Atkins, rightly remarks, ' Aristotle's ' Poetics ' is a comprehensive treatment of poetry, its nature and art, revealing many of the first principles of literary theory and the canons of the dramatic art and constituting, besides a valuable study of critical method, a mine of suggestive ideas and one of the few pieces of systematic criticism that have come down from the ancient world written in the severest of styles, devoid of all literary grace, it forms a treasury of ideas of lasting value, the full significance of which it has taken centuries to understand.
In it we see Aristotle as the first of the systematic theorists, an early exponent of the historical and psychological methods, and incidentally a pioneer in the business of some literary judgement, so that like in the theory of the practice of criticism, the work stands at the beginning of things. developing and extending the findings of Plato. " Aristotle's ' Poetics ' has remained a significant book in Europe down the ages.
It was accepted as an authoritative book by the Roman critic Horace. In the fifteenth century, the ' Poetics ' was translated and interpreted. As a result, the name and fame of ' Poetics ' reached France and rightly of wrongly became the cause of the neo-classical theory of literature. In England, Sir Philip Sidney accepted and advocated many of the principles of Poetics and took a typical neo-classical stand vis - - vis the drama of his time. Ben Jonson followed the mixed influence of the ' Poetics ' and also the neo-classical interpreters.
He defended its principles. He wrote his plays according to their real or imaginary prescriptions. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries - classicism influenced the literary criticism of Dryden, Addison, Pope and Dr Samuel Johnson. In the nineteenth century, the influence of ' Poetics waned for some time. But in the twentieth century critics like Ronald, S. Crane. Richard Mckeon and Elder Olson advocated the significance of Aristotle's " Poetics '. They were called the Chicago Aristotelians '.
Though poetics is not accepted as the Bible of criticism today, its significance is not denied It has got its value. It is still a treatise of literary criticism. Its influence and fascination is perennial. " It is still alive because it is a study of great art by a peculiarly acute, learned, and methodical critic. It is the first work of literary criticism.
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