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    Criticism (Plato and Aristotle)

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    Naseeb khan
    This document provides an overview of classical literary criticism from Plato, Aristotle, Horace, and Longinus. It summarizes Plato's criticisms of poetry as an imitation twice removed from reality. It also discusses Aristotle's rebuttal in his work Poetics, where he argues poetry conveys universal truths and uses mimesis to bring pleasure. The document outlines Aristotle's definitions of tragedy as portraying noble deeds through catharsis, and comedy as imitating base men through the ridiculous.

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    Criticism (Plato and Aristotle)

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    Naseeb khan
    150 views3 pages
    This document provides an overview of classical literary criticism from Plato, Aristotle, Horace, and Longinus. It summarizes Plato's criticisms of poetry as an imitation twice removed from reality. It also discusses Aristotle's rebuttal in his work Poetics, where he argues poetry conveys universal truths and uses mimesis to bring pleasure. The document outlines Aristotle's definitions of tragedy as portraying noble deeds through catharsis, and comedy as imitating base men through the ridiculous.

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    criticism (Plato and Aristotle)

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    This document provides an overview of classical literary criticism from Plato, Aristotle, Horace, and Longinus. It summarizes Plato's criticisms of poetry as an imitation twice removed from reality. It also discusses Aristotle's rebuttal in his work Poetics, where he argues poetry conveys universal truths and uses mimesis to bring pleasure. The document outlines Aristotle's definitions of tragedy as portraying noble deeds through catharsis, and comedy as imitating base men through the ridiculous.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    150 views3 pages

    Criticism (Plato and Aristotle)

    Uploaded by

    Naseeb khan
    This document provides an overview of classical literary criticism from Plato, Aristotle, Horace, and Longinus. It summarizes Plato's criticisms of poetry as an imitation twice removed from reality. It also discusses Aristotle's rebuttal in his work Poetics, where he argues poetry conveys universal truths and uses mimesis to bring pleasure. The document outlines Aristotle's definitions of tragedy as portraying noble deeds through catharsis, and comedy as imitating base men through the ridiculous.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    Lecture Notes

    Literary Criticism
    Department of English Language and Literature
    2020-2021
    Fourth Year
    Evening Studies

    Classical criticism (Plato, Aristotle, Horace & Longinus):

    Literary criticism is thought to have existed as long as literature. In the 4th century BC, Plato and

    Aristotle were the critics who gave guidelines of good literature without themselves being

    creative writers. Plato’s attacks on poetry as imitative, secondary and false were formative as

    well. Aristotle wrote the Poetics, which developed for the first time the concepts of mimesis and

    catharsis.

    Plato (427-347 BC)

    Plato was the first ancient philosopher who had given a systematic shape to criticism. Plato’s

    ideas are expressed in several books, chief among them being the Dialogues, Ion, Crito and The

    Republic.

    Theory of Forms (also called the Realm of Ideas or Realm of Ideals)

    Plato's philosophy asserts that there are two realms: the physical realm and the spiritual

    realm. The spiritual realm exists beyond the physical realm. Plato's Theory of Forms asserts that

    the physical realm is only a shadow, or replica or image of the true reality of the Realm of

    Forms.
    Plato’s Attack on Poetry

    Plato is famous for having banished poetry and poets from the ideal city of The Republic. In

    his opinion, poetry or art in general is a copy of a copy. It is twice removed from reality. The

    creations of poets and artists, being mere copies of copies of ‘ideal’ reality, are distortions of

    truth, valueless and indeed potentially misleading. The example he actually uses is of a bed:

    God created the ‘idea’ of the bed; the carpenter creates an actual bed from his imperfect

    perception of the ‘idea’; the poet or artist only produces a superficial imitation (mimesis) of the

    carpenter's bed. For Plato, the highest truth is strict, mathematical, intellectual; poetry does

    not deal in such truth and may distract us from truth. For Plato, poets depend on inspiration,

    which is a form of madness instead of reason and knowledge. Plato suggests that poets are liars.

    In Homer’s epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, for example, the gods lie and cheat and are one of the

    main causes of suffering among humans. Even the mortals (human beings) in these works steal,

    complain and hate each other. Such writings, argues Plato, set a bad example for Greek citizens

    and may lead people down paths of wickedness and immorality.

    Aristotle (384-322 BC)

    He was Plato’s pupil. He rejected some of Plato’s beliefs about the nature of reality because he

    was more concerned with the physical world. Applying his scientific methods of investigation to

    the study of literature, Aristotle answers Plato’s accusations against poetry in a series of lectures

    known as the Poetics.


    Poetry versus History in Aristotle:

    Aristotle compares a poet to a historian in terms of the truth each tries to convey in his writing.

    While history records actual, particular facts, poetry is concerned with universal truths, by

    imaginatively, speculating on the possibilities of human experience. Poets deal in a different kind

    of truth, not factual, technical or historical truth, but ‘universal truth’, something superior and

    better. Poetry expresses the universal, history the particular. Therefore,

    poetry is more philosophical than and superior to history.

    The Nature of Poetry concept of Mimesis (imitation):

    Aristotle agrees with Plato that all arts are imitations. But unlike Plato, Aristotle does not

    consider the poet’s imitations of life as being twice removed from reality. Poetry reveals

    universal truths. The act of imitation itself, according to Aristotle, gives us pleasure.

    Tragedy and Comedy

    Aristotle defines tragedy as ‘dramatic’ poetry which portrays noble men performing noble deeds

    expressed in a high artistic language; it represents men in action instead of narrating (as in the

    epic form), and through pity and fear, it causes the proper catharsis (or purgation of these

    emotions). Art possesses form – that is, tragedy has a defining beginning, a middle and an end. A

    tragedy is therefore an organic whole.

    Comedy, writes Aristotle, is an imitation of the actions of the base or inferior men. It is

    characterised by the ridiculous. Comedy is inferior to tragedy.

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