TRB POLY Aristotle: Poetics

Aristotle: Poetics
 Aristotle lays out six elements of tragedy: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and
song.
 Plot is 'the soul' of tragedy, because action is paramount to the significance of a drama,
and all other elements are subsidiary.
o A plot must have a beginning, middle, and end; it must also be universal in
significance, have a determinate structure, and maintain a unity of theme and
purpose.

 Plot also must contain elements of astonishment, reversal (peripeteia), recognition, and
suffering
o Reversal is an ironic twist or change by which the main action of the story comes
full-circle.
o Recognition, meanwhile, is the change from ignorance to knowledge, usually
involving people coming to understand one another's true identities.
o Suffering is a destructive or painful action, which is often the result of a reversal
or recognition.
o All three elements coalesce (combine) to create "catharsis," which is the
engenderment of fear and pity in the audience: pity for the tragic hero's plight,
and fear that his fate might befall us.

 When it comes to character, a poet should aim for four things.
o First, the hero must be 'good,' and thus manifest moral purpose in his speech.
o Second, the hero must have propriety, or 'manly valor.'
o Thirdly, the hero must be 'true to life.' And
o finally, the hero must be consistent.
 Tragedy and Epic poetry fall into the same categories:
o Simple, complex (driven by reversal and recognition), ethical (moral) or pathetic
(passion).

 There are a few differences between tragedy and epic, however.
o First, an epic poem does not use song or spectacle to achieve its cathartic effect.
o Second, epics often cannot be presented at a single sitting, whereas tragedies are
usually able to be seen in a single viewing.
o Finally, the 'heroic measure' of epic poetry is hexameter, where tragedy often
uses other forms of meter to achieve the rhythms of different characters' speech.
 Aristotle also lays out the elements of successful imitation.
o The poet must imitate either thing as they are, things as they are thought to be, or
things as they ought to be.
o The poet must also imitate in action and language (preferably metaphors or
contemporary words). Errors come when the poet imitates incorrectly - and thus
destroys the essence of the poem - or when the poet accidentally makes an error
(a factual error, for instance).
o Aristotle does not believe that factual errors sabotage (destroy, damage) the
entire work; errors that limit or compromise the unity of a given work, however,
are much more consequential.

 Aristotle concludes by tackling the question of whether the epic or tragic form is 'higher.'
Most critics of his time argued that tragedy was for an inferior audience that required the
gesture of performers, while epic poetry was for a 'cultivated audience' which could filter
a narrative form through their own imaginations.
 In reply, Aristotle notes that epic recitation can be marred (spoil) by overdone
gesticulation in the same way as a tragedy; moreover, tragedy, like poetry, can produce
its effect without action - its power is in the mere reading.
 Aristotle argues that tragedy is, in fact, superior to epic, because it has all the epic
elements as well as spectacle and music to provide an indulgent pleasure for the
audience. Tragedy, then, despite the arguments of other critics, is the higher art for
Aristotle.
 Executive Summary of Poetics by Aristotle
 1/ the concept of “mimesis”, which refers to the ability that man to  imitate what is
other than himself, and get pleasure (ch. 1-4);
 2/ the concept of “catharsis”, which refers to a hypothetical process by which we would
be purged of passion that you see represented in the work of art (ch. 14);
 3/ the concept of unity of action, which will open up in the classical theorists, including
in Boileau, in his Poetics. (ch. 7-8)
 4/ It can also be found in chapters 20-21 the first outlines of a linguistic reflection.
 “Poetics” here refers to the idea of ​​manufacturing development (poiesis, Poieni).
Aristotle attempts to define in this book all the compositional rules, thematic and
discursive presiding over the merits of literary texts. The literature is thus indexed to
the order of purely human achievement: it is thus, in the language of Marxism, a
“superstructure” as it is superimposed to the real. In no case means a poetic sense of
the word “poetic” derived from the term “poetry” genre, not literary mode of
production. Therefore a “poetic art” means a work that describes how to write and
create works, not just poetic works-in this case, the lyric is excluded from Aristotle’s
Poetics.

Summary of Poetics per chapter:
Chapter I
• Aristotle defined the purpose of poetry is imitation (mimesis).
Chapter II
• The purpose of this imitation is the painting of humanity in good and evil. The paint will
cover the good people of merit, the virtues of superior men. Its kind is the tragedy. Painting
mistreated poor people and their vices. Its kind is the laughable and the ugly: the comedy.
Chapter III
• Aristotle says that there are two ways of telling:
story.1. “You can imitate by telling” a) “by the mouth of another” (as Homer [= extradiegetic
narrator]), b) “we keep her personality” [= intradiegetic narrator]
Theatre.2. “You can imitate all the characters with all the characters as acting, as in act”
Chapter IV

• The “poetry” (as the literary production) is a procedure based on imitation and differentiates
humans and animals.
Chapter V
• Aristotle described the epic, tragedy and comedy (not our actual lyric). The epic is a story he
said “not limited in time” while the tragedy should last as long as “a revolution of the sun”, or
one day.
Chapter VI
• The tragedy is precisely defined as “the imitation of an action of high character and
complete a certain extent, in a language statement seasoning of a particular species according
to the various parties, imitation that is made by characters in action, not a story, and, arousing
pity and fear, operates purgation [catharsis] specific to such emotions. ”
• This imitation of the action is “history” (arrangement of the facts) of the “characters” (what is
said of the characters in action. This concept goes with Diderot and the passage of “character”
than “condition” ) The “character” is defined in Chapter XV.
Chapter VII
• The story (mythos, the “myth”, the “story”) must be ordered. Tragedy is an imitation of an
action (mimesis praxeos) brought to an end and must be fully complied with. It should be a
good start, a good knot, a good end.
Chapter VIII
• Aristotle calls a “unit of imitation” (the story is a completely unchangeable, that’s what we
would call today the “global economy” of history).
Chapter IX
• The historian is opposed to the poet (the poet referring to any writer). The historian tells
Recent events and the individual is interested as well. The poet evokes what could happen and
does the general.
Chapter X
• The “single action” does not include recognition or episode.
• “complex action” combines these two processes. (“Recognition” and “episode” are further
defined in Chapter XI). Tragedy is the best one with a complex action (Chapter XIII).
Chapter XI
• Aristotle then defines the two sentiments conveyed by the tragedy: pity and terror (these
feelings can, for purification or catharsis, to identify with characters out of himself by
releasing the emotional responses suggested by the performance.
• Aristotle also details the following concepts:
– “Episode”, “the reversal of the action in the opposite direction, depending on what was said”
– “Recognition”, so dear to the theater diderotien “passage from ignorance to knowledge.” All
awards are described in Chapter XVI.
– “Event pathetic”, “action which causes destruction or suffering” (injury, agony …)
Chapter XII
• This chapter explains the parts of tragedy (prologue, episode, exodus …)
Chapter XIII
• Aristotle describes the pitfalls to avoid in the composition of the stories (just a man too must
not slide freely in misfortune, an evil man does not know the happiness, etc.).
Chapter XIV

• This chapter is about the “arrangement of situations” (today called the “knotting” of the
situation, the “arrangement of situations” carries the unit of imitation discussed in Chapter
VIII .
Chapter XV
• lists the four criteria required of a “character”: (1) goodness in the actions and words, (2) the
adequacy of the character represented the character (a woman is feminine, a manly man …)
This criterion is behavioral, (3) the similarity of the character model (appearance), (4) the
consistency of character imitated in the unfolding of the tragedy.
Chapter XVI
• Aristotle lists four types of recognition: (1) by external signs, (2) by the will of the poet
(prophetic words of choice), (3) by the memory of the character or the public, (4) by deducting
the public .
Chapter XVII
• According to Aristotle, the situations should be as present as possible under the eyes, and
gestures to accompany the words
Chapter XVIII
• Two concepts are developed:
-Node: the beginning until the last moment which carries a “turnaround”.
-The outcome: the beginning of the shift until the end of happy or unhappy.
Chapter XIX
• Here Aristotle refuses to be interested in thought and speech, as his treatise is rather
poetical style.
Chapter XX
• The considerations of this chapter refer to the pronunciation and the sound value of the
signifier in the discourse of the characters.
Chapter XXI
• This chapter is a small onomastic Treaty where there are few elements in the rhetoric the
same author, including the “analogy” and the “metaphor”.
Chapter XXII
• This chapter discusses the appropriateness of common names and vocabulary in the
tragedy.
Chapter XXIII
• Aristotle returns to the epic who must obey the same rules of composition the tragedy, by
departing from it in that imitated the action is longer (see also Chapter XXIV), but not like a
historical narrative.
Chapter XXIV
•-The epic must contain the same characters and the same species as Tragedy (simple and
complex, as described in Chapter X).
-The poet must be silent because the presence in the text of his personality can affect
imitation.
The epic poet-up to the irrational in his story, and this much more than the tragic poet.
Chapter XXV
• This chapter is the probable. Aristotle analyzes the patterns of acceptability of the shares
represented in the epic. Some things exist or have existed, and then things allegedly existing
at last things that should be. By playing these modes, the poet can avoid criticism. Similarly it

can find an interest in serving his purpose he will use metaphors, the words “evil” appropriate
and possible contradictions in its history.
Chapter XXVI
• To Aristotle, tragedy is superior to epic
Quiz
1. Which of the following is NOT a distinctive feature of poetry?
 It uses language
 It uses rhythm
 It is written in verse
 It uses harmony
2. Which of the following contains a mix of direct and indirect narrative?
 Tragedy
 Comedy
 Homeric epic
 Dithyrambic poetry
3. Which of the following is not "art" in the Greek sense of the word?
 Tragedy
 A spear
 A table
 A peacock's feather
4. Which of the following is NOT a reason for why we like imitations?
 We learn from imitations
 Imitations exercise our reason
 We are not repelled by imitations of things we would normally find repellent
 There is a sense of safety in not having to deal with reality
5. Which of the following was the last to evolve?
 Tragedy
 Dithyramb
 Epic poetry
 Invective
6. Which of the following is not one of the "three unities"?
 Unity of action
 Unity of character
 Unity of place
 Unity of time
7. Which is the only unity that Aristotle insists upon?
 Unity of action
 Unity of character
 Unity of place
 Unity of time
8. Which of the following is the most important?
 Character

 Diction
 Plot
 Harmony
9. Which of the following is the least important?
 Character
 Plot
 Thought
 Spectacle
10. Which of the following is NOT a part of Aristotle's definition of tragedy?
 It arouses pity and fear
 It has an unhappy ending
 It involves mimesis
 It is performed rather than narrated
11. Which of the following genres has the same plot structure as tragedy?
 Epic poetry
 History
 Biography
 Episodic storytelling
12. Which of the following has an episodic structure?
 Biography
 History
 Both
 Neither
13. A complex plot must contain:
 Peripeteia
 Anagnorisis
 Both
 Either
14. Which of the following is NOT necessary to all tragedies?
 Exode
 Commos
 Parode
 Episode
15. Which is the best kind of tragic plot?
 A harmful deed is done knowingly
 A harmful deed is done in ignorance
 A harmful deed is avoided knowingly
 A harmful deed is premeditated in ignorance, but a discovery helps prevent it
16. Which is the worst kind of tragic plot?
 A harmful deed is done knowingly
 A harmful deed is done in ignorance
 A harmful deed is avoided knowingly
 A harmful deed is premeditated in ignorance, but a discovery helps prevent it

17. Which of the following is NOT a requirement for a tragic hero?
 The hero must be good
 The hero must be male
 The hero's character must be consistent
 The hero must be of high social status
18. Which is the worst kind of anagnorisis?
 Recognition by means of signs or marks
 Recognition prompted by memory
 Recognition through deductive reasoning
 Recognition that arises through the structure of the plot
19. Which is the best kind of anagnorisis?
 Recognition by means of signs or marks
 Recognition prompted by memory
 Recognition through deductive reasoning
 Recognition that arises through the structure of the plot
20. Which of the following is not within the domain of thought?
 Exciting emotion with a powerful speech
 Exhibiting shyness through hunched posture
 Persuading someone by means of logic
 Blowing a problem out of proportion by means of exaggeration
21. Which of the following is not a metaphor?
 "That's as likely as a cold day in July"
 "Juliet is the sun"
 "I'm a race car in the red"
 "My love is a red, red rose."
22. Which of the following is not a feature of epic poetry?
 Unity of plot
 A noble hero
 Iambic meter
 It is narrated
23. Which of the following is NOT true of epic poetry?
 It's longer than tragedy
 It can portray more isolated incidents than tragedy
 It can get away with presenting less probable events than those presented in
tragedy
 It is a more impressive spectacle than watching tragedy
24. Which of the following is not an acceptable reason for including impossible or
improbable events in a poem?
 The poet is portraying things as the ought to be, not as they are
 The poet is portraying things according to public opinion
 They are necessary to make the plot work
 They add to the astonishment and excitement of the story

25. Which of the following is NOT a reason given by Aristotle to prefer tragedy over epic
poetry?
 Exaggerated gestures can add something in performance
 Tragedy contains music and spectacle
 There is more unity in tragedy
 Tragedy shorter and more compact is

1Which is not something Aristotle says he will address in the Poetics?
 THE STRUCTURE NECESSARY FOR A GOOD POEM
 THE REVISION PROCESS FOR POETRY
 THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF POETRY
 THE METHOD IN WHICH A POEM IS DIVIDED INTO PARTS

2What does Aristotle mean by imitation?
 MIMICRY OF LANGUAGE
 REPRESENTATION OF LIFE
 REPRESENTATION OF DEATH
 MIMICRY OF SOUND

3Which is not included in the definition of poetry?

 ESSAY
 MUSIC
 COMEDY
 TRAGEDY

4Which is not included in poetry's imitation?

 INSTINCT
 HARMONY
 RHYTHM
 LANGUAGE
5What does 'dramitas' mean?

 DRAMA OF LANGUAGE
 DRAMA OF MUSIC
 DRAMA OF DANCING
 DRAMA OF ACTION

6Tragedy presents men...

 AS THEY OUGHT TO BE
 WORSE THAN THEY ARE
 AS THEY ARE
 BETTER THAN THEY ARE

7Comedy presents men...

 AS THEY OUGHT TO BE
 BETTER THEN THEY ARE
 WORSE THAN THEY ARE
 AS THEY ARE
8Epic presents men...
 AS THEY ARE

 BETTER THAN THEY ARE
 AS THEY OUGHT TO BE
 WORSE THAN THEY ARE

9According to Aristotle, Homer tends to present men...

 WORSE THEN THEY ARE
 AS THEY OUGHT TO BE
 AS THEY ARE
 BETTER THEN THEY ARE
10Which is not a form of imitative narration?

 FIRST-PERSON 'I'
 THIRD-PERSON NARRATOR
 SECOND-PERSON NARRATOR ('YOU')
 FIRST-PERSON OMNISCIENT 'I'
11What is one of the reasons poetry emerged?
 THE RISE OF COURT MUSIC
 THE INSTINCT FOR DANCE
 MAN'S INSTINCT FOR IMITATION
 THE NECESSITY FOR PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENT

12What does poetry tend to imitate, according to Aristotle?

 NOBLE MEN AND 'BAD' MEN
 'NATURE' IN ALL FORMS
 EPIC GRIEF
 DANCE AND MUSIC

13What genre began with the imitation of 'meaner men'?

 COMEDY
 DRAMA
 TRAGEDY
 EPIC

14Which genre was at first not taken seriously?

 EPIC
 COMEDY
 TRAGEDY
 DRAMA

15Fill in the blank: All the elements of [x] are found in tragedy, but not all the elements of [x]
are found in [x]
 EPIC
 DRAMA
 COMEDY
 MUSIC

16Which is not a component of tragedy?

 CHARACTER
 NARRATIVE FORM
 THOUGHT
 PLOT

17What by definition is serious, complete, and of a significant magnitude?

 EPIC
 TRAGEDY
 DRAMA
 COMEDY

18What comprises the arrangement of incidents that result from character and thought giving
way to action?

 THOUGHT
 CHARACTER
 PLOT
 DICTION

19Complication and denouement are two elements of...

 THOUGHT
 PLOT
 CHARACTER
 SPEECH

20What does Aristotle mean by dictoin?

 SONG
 DICTION
 GRIEF
 RHYTHMIC LANGUAGE

21According to Aristotle, what is the most important element of tragedy?

 PLOT
 COMEDY
 THOUGHT
 CHARACTER

22What is the least important element of a tragedy?

 SPECTACLE
 PLOT
 DICTION
 SONG
23Tragedy relies on...
 PITY
 ACTION
 CHARACTER
 NARRATIVE

24What is the term for a purgation of pity and fear in the audience?

 SPECTACLE
 DRAMA
 IMITATION
 CATHARSIS

25What is the term for the qualities ascribed to a certain men?

 SONG

 SPECTACLE
 CHARACTER
 DICTION
Aristotle Quiz Questions with Answers
1. When did Aristotle live?
a) 384-322 BC
2. Where was Aristotle born?
c) Stagira
3. Which philosopher was Aristotle’s master?
d) Plato
4. Which pupil of Aristotle became a conqueror?
c) Alexander
5. How was the school founded by Aristotle known?
b) Lyceum
6. How were Aristotle’s students known?
a) Peripatetics
7. What was the word used by Aristotle for anarchic mob rule?
c) Democracy
8. Which book contains Aristotle’s research in zoology and marine biology?
a) The History of Animals
9. What did Aristotle call metaphysics?
b) First philosophy
10. Where did Aristotle die?
d) Chalcis

Ezra Pound: The ABC of Reading
 ABC of Reading is a book by Ezra Pound published in 1934
 In it, Pound sets out an approach by which one may come to appreciate and understand
literature (focusing primarily on poetry).
 The work begins with the "Parable of the sunfish", ends with a collection of English
poetry that Pound called Exhibits and along the way contains several mantras:
 "Literature is language charged with meaning: Great literature is simply charged with
meaning to the utmost degree" - to be achieved by three main ways:
o phanopoeia – throwing the object (fixed or moving) on to the visual imagination.
o melopoeia – inducing emotional correlations by sound and rhythm of the speech.
o logopoeia – inducing 1 & 2 by stimulating associations with other word/word
groups.

 "Literature is news that stays news".
 "Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far
from music."

 "I've never read half a page of Homer without finding melodic invention."
 "Without the foregoing minimum of poetry in other languages you simply will not know
where English poetry comes."
 "From Chaucer you can learn whatever came over into the earliest English that one can
read without a dictionary."
 "Artists are the antennae of the race."
 "Man can learn more about poetry by really knowing and examining a few of the best
poems than by meandering about among a great many."
 "One of the pleasures of middle age is to find out that one was right, and that one was
much brighter than one knew at say seventeen or twenty-three."
 "The honest critic must be content to find a very little contemporary work worth serious
attention; but he must be ready to recognize that little..."
 "There are three types of melopoeia, i.e. verse made to sing; to chant/intone; and to
speak. The older one gets the more one believes in the first. One reads prose for the
subject matter."

Wayne C. Booth: The Rhetoric of fiction
 The Rhetoric of Fiction, he argued that all narrative is a form of rhetoric.
 Booth argues that beginning roughly with Henry James, critics began to emphasize the
difference between "showing" and "telling" in fiction and have placed more and more of
a dogmatic premium on "showing."
 Booth's criticism can be viewed as distinct from traditional biographical criticism and
the new criticism that argued that one can talk only about what the text says, and
the modern criticism that argues for the "eradication" of authorial presence.
 Booth claimed that it is impossible to talk about a text without talking about an author,
because the existence of the text implies the existence of an author.
 this implied author (a widely used term that Booth coined in this book; whom he also
called an author's "second self, is the one who "chooses, consciously or unconsciously,
what we read; we infer him as an ideal, literary, created version of the real man; he is the
sum of his own choices.
 In The Rhetoric of Fiction Booth coined the term "unreliable narrator".
 Booth detailed three "Types of Literary Interest" that are "available for technical
manipulation in fiction":
o (1) Intellectual or cognitive: We have, or can be made to have, strong intellectual
curiosity about "the facts," the true interpretation, the true reasons, the true
origins, the true motives, or the truth about life itself.
o (2) Qualitative: We have, or can be made to have, a strong desire to see any
pattern or form completed, or to experience a further development of qualities of
any kind. We might call this kind "aesthetic," if to do so did not suggest that a
literary form using this interest was necessarily of more artistic value than one
based on other interests.

o (3) Practical: We have, or can be made to have, a strong desire for the success or
failure of those we love or hate, admire or detest; or we can be made to hope for
or fear a change in the quality of a character. We might call this kind "human," if
to do so did not imply that 1 and 2 were somehow less than human. [5]
 Booth outlined various identities taken on by both authors and readers: The Flesh-and
Blood Author, the Implied Author, the Teller of This Tale, the Career Author, and the
"Public Myth"; and, the Flesh-and-Blood Re-Creator of Many Stories, the Postulated
Reader, the Credulous Listener, the Career Reader, and the Public Myth about the
"Reading Public."
Empson: Seven types of Ambiguity
Seven types
1. The first type of ambiguity is the metaphor, that is, when two things are said to be alike
which have different properties. This concept is similar to that of metaphysical conceit.
2. Two or more meanings are resolved into one. Empson characterizes this as using two
different metaphors at once.
3. Two ideas that are connected through context can be given in one word simultaneously.
4. Two or more meanings that do not agree but combine to make clear a complicated state
of mind in the author.
5. When the author discovers his idea in the act of writing. Empson describes a simile that
lies halfway between two statements made by the author.
6. When a statement says nothing and the readers are forced to invent a statement of their
own, most likely in conflict with that of the author.
7. Two words that within context are opposites that expose a fundamental division in the
author's mind.