What is the main ideas of aristotles literary criticism as presented in his book poetics. Poetics by aristotle, 9780199608362, download free ebooks, download free pdf epub ebook. Malcolm heaths introduction fills almost half the book but he truly captures the essence of poetics. The book is divided into short, fragmented sections that deals with every aspect of drama, poetry and epic.
This paper provides an overview and commentary of aristotles theory of poetry, of drama, and of narrative structure, as presented the poetics. Poetics questions and answers discover the community of teachers, mentors and students just like you that can answer any question you might have on poetics. As the shortest book ive got on my literature student bookshelf, this dover thrift edition poetics is the cheapest, and most flimsy, but completely worthwhile book. His most recent book is a new history of western philosophy 2010. The project gutenberg ebook of the poetics, by aristotle this ebook is for the use of.
In it are mentioned not only epic and dithyrambic poetry, but tragedy, comedy, and flute and lyre playing. Among the most influential books in western civilization, aristotle s poet. At some point, aristotles original work was divided in two, each book written on a separate roll of papyrus. Aristotles poetics is the most influential book on poetry ever written. Theres no introduction to the book, just a note about when it was written circa 330bc and about aristotle himself, taking up less than a page. Its not difficult to read, which was my initial concern. Poetics penguin classics aristotle, heath, malcolm on. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans. For oxford worlds classics he has translated aristotles eudemian ethics.
I was introduced to it in a graduate course in ancient greek literature and have used it many times in a sophomorelevel class on writing narratives for film and television. Moreover, epic might have had only literary exponents, but as platos ion and aristotles ch 26 of the poetics help prove, for plato and aristotle at least some epic rhapsodes used all three means of mimesis. In the poetics, aristotle is primarily concerned with analysis of. Aristotles poetics is the earliestsurviving work of dramatic theory and the first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory. Poetics aristotle sir anthony kenny download free ebook. The project gutenberg ebook of poetics, by aristotle. On the art of poetry, by aristotle project gutenberg. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of aristotle 384322 b. If they had to perform a hundred tragedies, they would be timed by. For over 100 years oxford worlds classics has made. Sir anthony kenny is a distinguished philosopher whose books include the aristotelian ethics 1978, aristotles theory of the will 1979, and aristotle on the perfect life 1992.