Cholin 1
Sujaykumar .S. Cholin
1537211
Literary Criticism and Theory
MEL 133
Tanmyee Banarjee
Department of English
14 September 2015
Summary of "Poetics" by Aristotle (Chapters: 16-20).
Aristotle(384-322 B.C.) was born in the city of Stagira in ancient Greece. He was a great
philosopher, a scientist, and above all he was a great literary laurate of the ancient world of
Greece. Aristotle was a student of Plato who joined his "Academy" at the age of seventeen. he
mastered almost all the subjects like history, zoology, mathematics, literature etc, which made
the modern thinkers and literary laurates, to call him as the "Mobile University". He studied in
the Academy for more than twenty years, under Plato and mastered several art forms and science
and methaphysics. He prouced several important literary masterpieces like, Nicomachean Ethics,
Politics, Poetics, Methaphysics, Rhetoric which proved the literary geniousness as a literary
laurate. During this course of time, he served as the tutor to the teen aged Alexander the Great in
his school "Lyceum" In the year 323 B.C. he was forced to leave Lyceum because of his
associations with Alexander and he died in the year 322 B.C. He left behind a lot of literary
treasures which exibutes his literary lauratship. To this group the work "Poetics" is included.,
In Poetics, Aristotle focuses his discussion on tragedy, which uses dramatic, rather than
narrative, form, and deals with agents who are better than us ourselves. Tragedy serves to arouse
the emotions of pity and fear and to effect a katharsis (catharsis) of these emotions. Aristotle
divides tragedy into six different parts, ranking them in order from most important to least
important as follows: (1) mythos, or plot, (2) character, (3) thought, (4) diction, (5) melody, and
(6) spectacle.(SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Poetics.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC.
n.d.. Web. 13 Sept. 2015).
The important Literary Terms in the Poetics
Mimesis - Mimesis is the act of creating in someone's mind, through artistic representation, an
idea or ideas that the person will associate with past experience. Roughly translatable as
"imitation," mimesis in poetry is the act of telling stories that are set in the real world. The events
in the story need not have taken place, but the telling of the story will help the listener or viewer
to imagine the events taking place in the real world.
Hamartia - This word translates almost directly as "error," though it is often rendered more
elaborately as "tragic flaw." Tragedy, according to Aristotle, involves the downfall of a hero, and
this downfall is effected by some error on the part of the hero. This error need not be an
overarching moral failing: it could be a simple matter of not knowing something or forgetting
something.
Anagnorisis - This word translates as "recognition" or "discovery." In tragedy, it describes the
moment where the hero, or some other character, passes from ignorance to knowledge. This
could be a recognition of a long lost friend or family member, or it could be a sudden recognition
of some fact about oneself, as is the case with Oedipus. Anagnorisis often occurs at the climax of
a tragedy in tandem with peripeteia.
Mythos - When dealing with tragedy, this word is usually translated as "plot," but unlike
"plot," mythos can be applied to all works of art. Not so much a matter of what happens and in
what order, mythos deals with how the elements of a tragedy (or a painting, sculpture, etc.) come
together to form a coherent and unified whole. The overall message or impression that we come
away with is what is conveyed to us by the mythos of a piece.
Katharsis - This word was normally used in ancient Greece by doctors to mean "purgation" or
by priests to mean "purification." In the context of tragedy, Aristotle uses it to talk about a
purgation or purification of emotions. Presumably, this means that katharsis is a release of built
up emotional energy, much like a good cry. After katharsis, we reach a more stable and neutral
emotional state.
Peripeteia - A reversal, either from good to bad or bad to good. Peripeteia often occurs at the
climax of a story, often prompted by anagnorisis. Indeed, we might say that the peripeteia is the
climax of a story: it is the turning point in the action, where things begin to move toward a
conclusion.
Lusis - Literally "untying," the lusis is all the action in a tragedy from the climax onward. All
the plot threads that have been woven together in the desis are slowly unraveled until we reach
the conclusion of the play.
Desis - Literally "tying," the desis is all the action in a tragedy leading up to the climax. Plot
threads are craftily woven together to form a more and more complex mess. At the peripeteia, or
turning point, these plot threads begin to unravel in what is called the lusis, or
denouement.(SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Poetics.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC.
n.d.. Web. 13 Sept. 2015).
Summary of the Chapters 16-20.
Aristotle's Poetics, is one of the important literary source, which lays the rules and
regulations for the production of literary masterpieces. He mainly focuses on the tradgey and
epic poetery which he considers as best forms of literature. In the chapter 16 of the poetics he
explains the various forms of Anagnorisis, and its significence.He explains "Anagnorisis" as the
recollection or discovery of some unknown facts about the protogonist, or about other characters
in the drama. Aristotle in this chapter explains six different kinds of anagnorisis, which are
explained below:
First, there is recognition by means of signs or marks, such as when Odysseus's nurse
recognizes him by virtue of a characteristic scar. Aristotle considers this the least artistic kind of
anagnorisis, usually reflecting a lack of imagination on the part of the poet. Second, also
distasteful to Aristotle, is a recognition contrived by the author. In such a case, the poet is unable
to fit the anagnorisis into the logical sequence of the plot, and so it seems extraneous. Third is
recognition prompted by memory. A disguised character may be prompted to weep or otherwise
betray himself when presented with some memory from the past. Fourth, the second best kind of
anagnorisis, is recognition through deductive reasoning, where the anagnorisis is the only
reasonable conclusion of an agent's thought. Fifth, there is recognition through faulty reasoning
on the part of a disguised character. The disguised character might unmask himself by exhibiting
knowledge that only he could know. Sixth, the best kind of anagnorisis, is the kind of recognition
that is naturally a part of the logical sequence of events in the play, such as we find in Oedipus
Rex.(SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Poetics.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d..
Web. 13 Sept. 2015).
Aristotle lays foundation for the structure of the tradgey and epic poetery in his poetics.
He discribes various elements of the tradgey which makes it a masterpiece. Aristotle mainly
focuses on the tradgey and epic poetery in his Poetics. Because of the lack of existing of lack of
other literary forms during his period. He beautifies tradgey and suggests some qualifications for
the artist who took on writing of the tradgey.
(1) The poet should be sure to visualize the action of his drama as vividly as possible.
This will help him spot and avoid inconsistencies. (2) The poet should even try acting out the
events as he writes them. If he can himself experience the emotions he is writing about, he will
be able to express them more vividly. (3) The poet should first outline the overall plot of the play
and only afterward flesh it out with episodes. These episodes are generally quite brief in tragedy
but can be very long in epic poetry. As an example, Aristotle reduces the entire plot of the
Odyssey to three sentences, suggesting that everything else in the poem is episode. (4) Every
play consists of desis, or complication, and lusis, or denouement. Desis is everything leading up
to the moment of peripeteia, and lusis is everything from the peripeteia onward. (5) There are
four distinct kinds of tragedy, and the poet should aim at bringing out all the important parts of
the kind he chooses. First, there is the complex tragedy, made up of peripeteia and anagnorisis;
second, the tragedy of suffering; third, the tragedy of character; and fourth, the tragedy of
spectacle. (6) The poet should write about focused incidents, and not about a whole epic story.
For instance, a tragedy could not possibly tell the entire story of the Iliad in any kind of
satisfying detail, but it can pick out and elaborate upon individual episodes within the Iliad. (7)
The chorus should be treated like an actor, and the choral songs should be an integral part of the
story. Too often, Aristotle laments, the choral songs have little to do with the action at
all.(SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Poetics.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. Web.
13 Sept. 2015).
In the 19th and 20th chapter Aristotle turns his attention toward thought and then diction
(he never specifically addresses melody or spectacle). Aristotle defines thought as everything
that is effected by means of language. Thus, when agents try to prove or disprove a point, to
arouse emotion, or to inflate or deflate a matter, they are exhibiting thought. Thought is closely
linked to rhetoric, and Aristotle points to the more thorough discussion to be found in his
writings on that latter subject.
Aristotle divides the subject of diction into eight parts: letter, syllable, conjunction,
article, noun, verb, case, and speech. Though many of these terms are identical to our modern
uses of them, we should note that Aristotle is concerned less with written language and more
with spoken language. As a result, Aristotle treats the letter—the fundamental building block of
language—as a unit of sound rather than as a single written character. The concept of case,
unfamiliar to English speakers, deals with the different uses of a word. For instance, "with the
dog" and "for the dogs" are different cases of "dog," and "walked?" and "walk!" are different
cases of "walk." Speech is more like what we would call a clause than a sentence. It does not
have to contain a verb, but it must be made up of significant parts(SparkNotes Editors.
“SparkNote on Poetics.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. Web. 13 Sept. 2015).
Bibilography:
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Poetics.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. Web. 13
Sept. 2015.
1: Multiple Choice Questions:
1: Who introduced the term Anagnorisis for the first time?
a) Plato
b) Achilles
c) Aristotle
d) Alexander
Ans: c) Aristotle.
2: In which book Aristotle introduced Anagnorisis?
a) Poetics
b) Metaphysis
c) Mathematics
d) History
Ans: a) Poetics
3: In which chapter, Aristotle introduced Anagnorisis?
a) 17
b) 15
c) 16
d) 11
Ans: c) 16
4: Aristotle says "Anagnorisis is not a recognation but a recollection".
a) True
b) False
c) Can't say
d) None of the above
Ans: b) False
5: What did Aristotle focus the most in his Poetics?
a) Comedy
b) Essay
c) Tradgy
d) Epic Poetery
Ans: c) Tradgey
6: who is the tutor of Alexander?
a) Plato
b) Socrates
c) Euriprdius
d) Aristotle
Ans: d) Aristotle
7: How many classifications did Aristotle make in diction?
a) 4
b) 6
c) 7
d) 8
Ans: d) 8
8: Mension the example which Aristotle gives to explain Anagnorisis?
a) Odessey
b) Achilles
c) Venus
d) Adonis
Ans: a) Odessey
9: Name the school which was esthablished by Aristotle?
a) Academy
b) Lyceum
c) Acropolis
d) None of the above
Ans: b) Lyceum.
10: When did Aristotle died?
a) 324 B.C.
b) 321 B.C.
c) 322 B.C.
d) 323 B.C.
Ans: c) 322 B.C.