Aristotle’s Poetics
This work of Aristotle "On the Art of Poetry" (more often called simply "Poetics") summarized everything that was said about the theory of art before Aristotle, while putting forward his own thoughts and arguments.
Aristotle's theory
is based not only on his own observations and the study of works of fiction,
but also on the study of works on the theory of literature of his predecessors
and contemporaries. But none of these works have survived, so Aristotle's
Poetics remains for us the only monument of the classical era of Greece,
devoted to the systematic presentation of questions of the theory of
poetry. True, Poetics has not come down to us in its entirety; only the
first part of this work has survived, in which Aristotle expounds the theory of
tragedy. But even the text that has come down to our days clearly suffers
from omissions and obvious distortions (which, in general, is not surprising,
since Poetics was written 24 centuries ago).
Starting to talk
about Poetics, we need some information from the biography of the author of
this treatise:
Aristotle was born in 384. BC. in the Greek city of Stagira. Aristotle entered the school of Plato at a very early age (at the age of 17). In the Platonic Academy, Aristotle receives the most important foundations of knowledge, using which, he subsequently opens his own school opposite Plato, and becomes an inveterate opponent of his teacher.
Plato's philosophy passed to Aristotle almost entirely. Neither Plato nor Aristotle thinks things without their ideas, or eidos. But the Poetics was written in the last years of Aristotle's life (336-322 BC).
We also need to
know what Aristotle actually understands by the word "poetics", which
in our time has acquired the meaning of the science of verbal artistic
creativity. In ancient Greek, this word denoted the very verbal, literary
creation (poetry), that is, the art of poetry, and not the science of
it. It should also be remembered that Aristotle himself would never have
called his work a study of art, because for him the concept of “art” was very
broad. Aristotle called art not only architecture, painting or music, but
also medicine, mathematics, etc.
Nevertheless,
Aristotle, in his own way following Plato, introduces in the Poetics an
extremely important principle that distinguishes the so-called fine
arts. This is "mimesis" - imitation, reproduction. The "imitative
arts", according to Aristotle, are "creativity that follows true
reason." The author of a work is free to be original, different from
others. This originality becomes the law of imitative art. According
to Aristotle, imitative art speaks "not about what really happened, but
about what could have happened." Consequently, imitative arts use the
subjective representations of people to depict the possible, and against the
background of this possibility, the author draws things real and unreal. Moreover,
what he draws should be distinguished by certain bright qualities that cause an
appropriate attitude towards himself (“... all imitators imitate the
characters, the latter are necessarily either good or bad (for the character
almost always follows only this, since in relation to character everyone
differs either in viciousness or virtue). But nevertheless, poetry is much
more philosophical, more serious than other "arts", as it considers
the likely course of events.
"Catharsis: is an emotional State that Aristotle identifies as a tragic emotions;The fear of seeing the hero make his exit from the scene"
The main subject
of study of the treatise "Poetics" is the imitative art of catharsis; Catharsis,
according to Aristotle, is "imitation (reproduction) of a serious,
complete action." But this is an imitation of "action and life,
happiness and misfortune." The characters are brought into tragedy, according
to Aristotle, in order to portray some kind of action, and not quality or
character (“without action, tragedy could not exist, but without characters it
could”). The epic differs from the tragedy in little: simple size and
volume (the epic is not limited by time, and the tragedy, according to
Aristotle, almost always describes the events of one day). Aristotle calls
the scenery the first necessary part of the tragedy. In second place in
importance is musical composition (“that which has an obvious meaning to
everyone”). And only in third place does Aristotle put a verbal expression
("the very combination of words"). Aristotle believes that for
the viewer, the scenery and the action itself are much more important than what
the actors say and how. According to Aristotle, such a volume of tragedy
is optimal, "within which, with the continuous succession of events
according to probability or necessity, a change from unhappiness to happiness
can occur" or vice versa. Tragedy mimics action in that it evokes
either compassion or fear in the viewer. And the greatest compassion,
according to Aristotle, is caused by such a hero who "does not differ in
particular virtue and justice and falls into misery not because of his
worthlessness and depravity, but because of some mistake
...". Aristotle believed that in order to achieve maximum effect, the
plot should reflect the transition of a person from happiness to
unhappiness, and not vice versa. In this way, the viewer will be able
to experience the greatest fear and / and compassion. Moreover, the poet
must portray the heroes fighting against their friends or relatives. In
addition, the characters of the heroes should be noble ("in speech or
action to reveal any direction of will"), suitable ("not suitable for
a woman to be courageous or formidable"), believable and
consistent. And observing all these laws, the author must achieve easy
memorability of his plot. The most important actions in tragedy, according
to Aristotle, are vicissitudes (“change of events to the opposite”) and
recognition (“transitions from ignorance to knowledge”). Recognition can
occur through external signs (by scars, by stars, etc.), recognition can be
"invented", that is, unexplained (such recognition Aristotle
condemns, considering it a lack of the author's imagination), there is
also recognition of the memory (when the hero, when recalling something,
experiences intense excitement, according to which others guess about his
secret) and the last type of recognition is recognition of inferences (such
recognition may be false). The best, according to Aristotle, is the
recognition that follows from the action itself, from the twists and turns,
since "the amazement of the public arises due to the natural course of
events" (unity of action). Aristotle also distinguishes two parts in
tragedy: the plot (“that part that extends from the beginning to the moment
that is the limit from which the transition to happiness (or unhappiness)
occurs”) and the denouement (“from the beginning of this transition to the
end”). Aristotle identifies four types of tragedy: woven (all action is
based on twists and turns and recognition), tragedy of suffering, the
tragedy of characters (it is true, it is completely unclear how to correlate
the "tragedy of characters" with the aforementioned statement that
character is not necessarily present in tragedy) and the tragedy of the
miraculous. Aristotle also pays much attention to the question of the
verbal form of tragedy. The speech of the tragedy must be adorned with
skillful individual metaphors. But the text should be understandable to
the viewer, therefore, along with metaphors, the poet should also use ordinary
words. The tragedy should be written in iambic, as this rhythm is closest
to the spoken language. Clarity, according to Aristotle, is an essential
part of any good tragedy. Aristotle also pays much attention to the
question of the verbal form of tragedy. The speech of the tragedy must be
adorned with skillful individual metaphors. But the text should be
understandable to the viewer, therefore, along with metaphors, the poet should
also use ordinary words. The tragedy should be written in iambic, as this
rhythm is closest to the spoken language. Clarity, according to Aristotle,
is an essential part of any good tragedy. Aristotle also pays much
attention to the question of the verbal form of tragedy. The speech of the
tragedy must be adorned with skillful individual metaphors. But the text
should be understandable to the viewer, therefore, along with metaphors, the
poet should also use ordinary words. The tragedy should be written in
iambic, as this rhythm is closest to the spoken language. Clarity,
according to Aristotle, is an essential part of any good tragedy.
In addition, the
treatise "Poetics" examines the essence of beauty in a completely
different light than those of Aristotle's predecessors. In the latter
(Socrates and Plato can be attributed to them), the concept of beauty merged
with the concept of good. Aristotle, on the other hand, starts from the ethical
understanding of beauty and sees beauty in the form itself. One could
accuse Aristotle of excessive idealism and say that only form without content
is important to him. But having carefully studied Poetics, we see that
this is not so.
Aristotle does not
equate imitation with copying, on the contrary, in art there must be
generalization and fiction. Art should help a person to better understand
life. He rebukes those works in which he sees "the impossible, or
illogical, or harmful to morality, or containing contradictions, or going
against the rules of art." Aristotle believed that the essence of
tragedy is purification through fear and compassion (catharsis). But he
did not single out a special place in Poetics for studying the essence of this
idea.
Despite the fact
that the basic ideas of the Poetics are not so easy to define in the confused
system of Aristotle's presentation, they are extremely valuable to us. The
main literary and theoretical principles of classicism are reflected in the
treatise. Aristotle already in the 4th century BC. realized the need
for a tense conflict in a dramatic work, emphasized the ideological nature of
the tragedy, considered the principles of plotting. His treatise fully
expressed the foundations of the theory of art of the ancient world. And
although for many centuries there have been disputes over many issues of the
Poetics, the main ideas of this treatise are, of course, indisputable.