Page 24 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Literary Criticism and Theories

Notes To sum up: Aristotle classifies the fine arts on the basis of (1) their medium of imitation, (2) their
objects of imitation, and (3) their manner of imitation. Poetry is distinguished from the other arts
on the basis of its medium of imitation. Further, poetry is divisible into epic and dramatic, according
to the manner of its imitation. Dramatic poetry is then classified into tragedy and comedy on the
basis of its medium of imitation.
The first three chapters of the Poetics bring out Aristotle’s passion for ‘categories’ or ‘classification’.
Ch IV: Origin and Development of Poetry
Having classified the fine arts in the first three chapters, Aristotle now traces the origin and
development of poetry, by which be means dramatic poetry, and it is to this genre that he now
increasingly confines his attention.
In his opinion, poetry had its origin in four human instincts:
1. the natural human instinct to imitate things, as we observe in the case of monkeys and children.
2. the natural pleasure we get from a good work of imitation. It is for this reason that accurate
imitations of even ugly objects give pleasure,
3. learning or knowing, something new, is always a pleasure; it is for this reason that we derive
pleasure from an imitation of an object we have never seen before, and
4. our instinctive pleasure in harmony and rhythm.
Poetry grew out of these natural causes. Quite early in its development, poetry diverged into two
directions. Poets who were more serious imitated noble actions of noble personages, and in this
way wore composed panegyrics on the great and hymns to the gods. Out of those grew heroic or
epic poetry, like the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer. Out of the epic, by gradual stages, rose the
tragedy.
Similarly, there were poets of a frivolous nature who imitated the actions of trivial persons, and in
this way they produced invectives or personal satires, and comedy derives from these ‘Iambs’ or
personal satires.
Aristotle notes the peculiar position of Homer who excels both in the serious and the frivolous.
Just as he is the greatest poet in the serious style, so, he is the greatest poet in the field of the comic
and in light. His Iliad and Odyssey are serious epics, while his Margites is a comic epic, in which he
is the first to give us a picture of the ridiculous which is the essence of comedy. (The Margites,
however, has been lost; it has not come down to us.)
Ch V: Definition of the Ridiculous: Epic and Tragedy
In this chapter, Aristotle first discusses the subject matter of comedy and then proceeds to compare
and contrast epic and tragedy.
Comedy is a representation, of characters of a lower type, worse than the average. By ‘lower’ or
‘worse’ Aristotle does not mean morally ‘bad’, but only ridiculous. He then defines the ridiculous, “as
a species of the ugly”. It is that species of the ugly which does not cause any pain or harm to others.
Rather, it is productive of laughter.
Epic and tragedy are similar in as much as both of them represent ‘serious’ actions of ‘serious’
characters, or characters ‘better’ than the average. They do so is a grand or elevated style. However,
the differences between the two forms are several and well marked:
1. Epic is narrative, while tragedy is dramatic in from;
2. Epic uses only one metre, “the heroic”, while tragedy can use different metres in different
parts, (verse for dialogue and song for the choric parts); and
3. the Epic is much longer, because its action is not limited by time or place, while the action of
tragedy is confined to, “a single circuit of the sun”. It was this statement from which were
derived the unities of time and place by later critics.
However, it should be noted that Aristotle here does not lay down any rule and he adds the
clauses, “as far as possible”, and “or something near that”. Aristotle is here not laying any rigid

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