Aristotle's Literary Criticism
Updated: Mar 31, 2022
HIS WORKS AND AGE:
Aristotle lived from 384 B. C. to 322 B. C. He was the most distinguished disciple of Plato. He is also known as the tutor for Alexander the Great. He has done a lot of literary criticism (believed to be half a dozen), among them Poetics and Rhetoric are the most popular. Poetics deals with the art of poetry and Rhetoric deals with the art of speaking. His works are deeply rooted in Greek literature.
POETICS STRUCTURE:
· It is a treatise of about 50 pages containing 26 small chapters.
· 1-4 chapters and 25th are devoted to poetry.
· 5th chapter in general to comedy, epic, and tragedy
· 6- 19 chapters exclusively for tragedy.
· 20-22 chapters deal with poetic diction.
· 23 and 24 to epic poetry
· 26th chapter to a comparison of epic poetry and tragedy.
It is believed that this work is the lecture for his disciples which is then written by the students or himself. And it also appears to have another part but it is lost. Aristotle’s main concern is on tragedy, the developed form of poetry.
Source:
English Literary Criticism: An Introduction by Charles Edwyn Vaughan
An Introduction to English Criticism by B. Prasad
Recent Posts
See AllOn Regional Styles in Poetry On Alankaras: Alankaras means figures of speech. It renders Kavyas attractive. The old masters have shown the following figures of speech: 1. Realistic expression- also ca
INTRODUCTION: This piece of work is from Kavyadarsa, one of the earliest texts in Indian Literary Theory. Dandin is the pioneer of the Sanskrit Literary Theory. He was called ‘critique of Sanskrit Poe
His Observations on Comedy HIS OBSERVATIONS ON THE EPIC: 1) Its Nature and Form: The epic grew out of the old hymns to the gods and songs sung in praise of famous men. In its nature, it resembles trag
