Page 37 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Unit 2: Aristotle: The Poetics: Introduction, Tragedy

• Character Notes
(i) It must be good. (Even a woman, in this context, can be good. )
(ii) It must aim at being appropriate..the right type e.g. a man should be brave, but a
woman should not necessarily be brave, neither should she be unscrupulously clever.
(iii) It must be true to life...realism.
(iv) It must be consistent. The poet should aim at either the necessary or the probable so
that it is credible.
(v) The 'deus ex machina should only be used for events external to the drama: for
antecedent or subsequent events or those beyond the range of human knowledge.
(vi) The poet should preserve the type, but ennoble it.

• Thought
This consists of every effect which has to be produced by speech; proof and refutation.
excitation of the feelings. suggestion of importance or its opposite .
Thought is one of the causes of action...it covers the mind's activities from reasoning.
perception and formulation of emotion.
Thought is expressed in speeches and is therefore closely linked to
• Diction
This covers language and its use..the way command. request. prayer. statement. or question
is expressed.
Aristotle turns to study Rhetoric and analysis of word, sentence, letter, syllable, connecting
word, case (inflection) or phrase; each is technically examined.
He also examines metaphor ( e.g. light and darkness in the OEDIPUS TYR.) and lyric poetry
especially in choral odes.
• Diction, Song and Spectacle are concerned with the production of the play. They are therefore
essential parts of tragedy, but concern the poet less than the first three elements.
N.B. Refer to Functions of the Chorus
THE CHORUS should be regarded as one of the actors and even of greater importance
because it must be integral a "sine qua non". and it is therefore unifying.
N.B. In the earliest tragedy we have, Aeschylus' "Suppliant Women", the Chorus are the
subject of the tragedy.-(eponymous)
(They are or the stage from nearly the beginning until the end. )
• Recognition
There are four different methods:
(i) By signs (bodily marks) least artistic.
(ii) Invented at will by poet ...e.g. Orestes in the "Iphigenia".
(iii) By memory being awakened e.g. by an object.
(iv) By a process of reasoning... e.g. as in the "CHOEPHORI".
Notes:
(i) Workout the questions as instructed.
(ii) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the unit.

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