Customer Reviews:
 Tragedy Teaches Us Something About Life May 9, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I read these works for a graduate seminar on Aristotle.
Poetry appeals to human passions and emotions. Powerful beautiful language and metaphor really appeal to emotion. This idea really disturbed Plato, who takes on Homer in the Republic. Plato thought that early Greek poetry portrays a dark world; humans are checked by negative limits like death. Tragedy has in it a character of high status brought down through no fault of his own. Plato says this is unjust. Republic is about ethical life and justice. It starts with the premises that might makes right and then moves onto the idea much like modern religions that justice comes in the afterlife. Plato hates the idea that in tragedy bad things can happen to good people. He wanted to ban tragedy because he found it demoralizing.
Aristotle's Poetics is a defense against Plato's appeal to ban tragedy. Tragedy was very popular in Greek world so Aristotle asks can it be wrong to ban it? Yes, it is wrong thus he decides to study it. Plato says Poetry is not a technc because the poets are divinely inspired. Aristotle disagrees Poetics is a handbook for playwrights. Mimcsis= "representation or imitation." Plato uses it in speaking of painting, thus art is imitation. Another meaning is to mimic, like actors mimicking another person. Plato and Aristotle use it to mean psychological identification like how we get absorbed in a movie as if the action were real, eliciting emotions from us. We suspend reality for a while. Aristotle says this is natural in humans; we do this as children, we mimic. If imitation is important for humans then tragic poetry is worthwhile for Aristotle to study.
Definition of tragedy- "Through pity and fear it achieves purification from such feelings. This is a famous controversial line. Katharsis= "pity and fear" thus the purpose of tragedy is to purge katharsis. Katharsis can also mean purification or clean. There is a debate if it means clarification, through which we can come to understand katharsis. Aristotle thinks tragedy teaches us something about life. Tragedy is an elaboration on Aristotle's idea that good or virtuous people sometimes get unlucky and in the end, they get screwed. Tragedy shows this so we can learn to get by when life screws us. The whole point of tragedy is action over character. Action is the full story of the poem like the Iliad. Character is only part of the action.
Aristotle distinguishes between poetry and history. Poetry is concerned with universals, history is concerned with particulars.
I recommend Aristotle's works to anyone interested in obtaining a classical education, and those interested in philosophy. Aristotle is one of the most important philosophers and the standard that all others must be judged by.
 Do not get this translation! August 20, 2001
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
I feel that this is a horrible translation of an otherwise great work of literature. This translator felt the need to re-arrange pieces of Aristotle's work, and completely relocate some to an "Appendix." If you find this appalling, then you need to find another translation. However, if you are fine with the butchering of another person's work, by all means, order this book.
A must for screenwriters and playwrites alike December 13, 1999
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Aristotles Poetics is a classic in every way and still deserves to be studied and used, not just as a piece of literature. Although Aristotle expresses the highest standards a play should have it can be used as a guide or premise in which to follow in thier own writings. Declaring that Sophacles' Oedipus the King as the perfect play, which would be a good companion to this piece, Aristotle demonstrates how every play should have these attributes, namely a 24 hour time limit to disclose the plot and mysteries of a story. Among other things, which would be too lengthy to go into any review, Poetics stands as a classic guide and should be continued to be practiced and be in any writers library.
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