Aristotle has enunciated certain artistic principles which will remain permanently valid. Discuss and illustrate.
The Poetics ' is a short treatise of twenty-six chapters. It contains a philosophical discussion of literature. " It is an exposition of the principles of literary criticism as valid for Shakespeare and Milton, as it was for Homer and Sophocles. " It is a world - book. It enjoys worldwide popularity. Its influence and fascination are perennial. Hamilton Fyfe rightly remarks: ' 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 and it is written by the world's first scientist. " ' The Poetics ' is a book of practical criticism. It is a study of basic principles In fact, it is the first scientific work of criticism. Even today. Poetics continues to be studied in schools and colleges all over the world from California to Calcutta. ( F. L. Lucas ) . It is because ' The Poetics ' contains a comprehensive treatment of poetry.
It describes its nature and art, purely on aesthetic grounds It depicts many of the first principles of poetry and drama. ' The Poetics ' is a valuable study of critical methods. It is a mine of suggestive ideas. Poetics is a thought-provoking treatise. It contains systematic criticism. It is a great contribution to literary theory. Poetics ' is significant as it expounds historical and psychological methods of criticism.
In The Poetics ' the opening three chapters form a brief introduction to poetic forms and the theory of imitation. The fourth chapter presents the origin and development of poetry. The fifth chapter gives a brief history of comedy. The epic is compared to tragedy. The discussion of tragedy, which occupies a very large part of Poetics, begins in the sixth chapter. The tragedy is defined and analysed. There is an explanation of the concept of Mythos.
The ninth chapter distinguishes poetry from history, from the standpoint of the principleof unity. A classification of the fables appears next. It is followed by an account of peripety, recognition and suffering. Then come the quantitative parts of the tragedy. The thirteenth chapter examines the construction of the fable in the light of the effect and gives an idea of Aristotle's conception it the Ideal hero.
This is followed by an examination of the tragic emotions and by an analysis of the tragic character. Various forms of discovery are taken up in the sixteenth. The next two chapters offer a few practical rules. The nineteenth chapter examines thought and diction. The alleged interpolated twentieth chapter has linguistic definitions.
Poetic diction and style are covered in the next two. The nature of the epic is described in the twenty-third and twenty-fourth chapters. Next, he faces some critical problems and it is here that the mimesis with which the book opens appears as a differentiating principle in the last chapter. Epic and tragedy are compared.
Critics say that ' The Poetics ' has certain defects.
1. The handling of the subject in ' The Poetics ' is disproportionate.
2. Aristotle has practically ignored lyric poetry.
3. Aristotle has also ignored descriptive poetry - poetry of nature.
4. Aristotle has cursorily treated comedy.
5. The style of ' The Poetics ' is epigrammatic and highly concentrated. Abercrombie writes, " It is abrupt, disjointed, awkwardly terse, as awkwardly digressive; essential ideas are left unexplained, inessential things are elaborated. In short, it has all the defects of lecture notes. "
6. It is a work obviously not meant for publication because there are irregularities, omissions, contradictions and repetitions, It shows a lack of revision.
7. ' The Poetics ' shows signs of hesitation and uncertainty in the use of terminology.
8. " The Poetics ' reveals that Aristotle's theories are not wholly the result of free and dispassionate reflection.
9. The meaning of ' The Poetics ' is often obscure even to accomplished scholars.
But despite these defects, The Poetics ' is an epoch-making work. Its greatness lies in the following facts -
1. Aristotle discards the earlier ' oracular ' method.
2. Aristotle's methods are explanatory and tentative. It is an attempt to arrive at the truth, rather than an assertion of some preconceived notions. Gilbert Murray points out, " The Poetics ' is the first attempt made by a man of astounding genius to build up in the region of creative art a rational order, like that he had already established in the region of the physical sciences. "
3. As Aristotle studies poetry concerning man, his method of enquiry is psychological.
4. In ' The Poetics ' Aristotle originates the historical method of inquiry.
5. Atkins believes that ' the miracle of ' The Poetics . ' is that it contains so much that is of permanent and universal interest. "
6. Poetics ' is full of ideas that are as true today as they were when it was written.
7. Aristotle stirred the essential problems. The Poetics ' is thought-provoking.
Aristotle wrote Poetics as a reply to Plato's scratching denunciation of poetry as false, unreal, harmful and immoral. The author of Poetics had the author of the Republic in his mind, though nowhere in the Poetics he mention the name of Plato. Yet he is so much engrossed in the ideas of Plato that all the time he seems to be engaged in refuting them.
Atkins finds Aristotle " merely careful to frame a reply to Plato's indictment; and with this, he is apparently for the most part content. " Professor Abercrombie also thinks " that almost certainly the Poetics is Aristotle's counterblast to Plato's celebrated condemnation of poetry as a pursuit unworthy of man's intellectual dignity and radically vicious in its effect. "
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