Poetry Evil Plato v Aristotle If Plato is

Poetry: Evil? Plato v. Aristotle “If Plato is a Fine Red Wine, then Aristotle is a Dry Martini. ” --Eric Stoltz as Chet, Kicking & Screaming

Plato’s Gauntlet. . . • • Let Those Who Love Poetry But Lack its Art Defend It On What Grounds? RIGHT! Philosophy! A Challenge to Aristotle?

Aristotle (384 – 322 BCE) • Nicknamed “The Stagirite” & “The Mind” • Plato’s Student (17 – 37 years old) • Poetics’ Date. . . 335? • Tutored Alexander the Great • Feared Athenians might Kill Him

Poetry = Imitation of Action 1. Music by Harmony & Rhythm 2. Dance by Rhythmic Motion 3. Dithyramb by Harmony, Rhythm, & Language 4. Epics by Harmony, Rhythm, & Language through Narration 5. Comedy & Tragedy by Harmony, Rhythm, & Language through Drama

Poetics’ Definition of Tragedy “Tragedy, then, is the process of imitating an action which has serious implications, is complete, and possesses magnitude; by means of language which has been made sensuously attractive […]; enacted by persons themselves and not presented through narative; through a course pf pity and fear completing the purification [catharsis] of tragic acts which have those emotional characteristics. ” (WAD 155)

Six Parts of Tragedy Plot = Arrangement of Imitated Action’s Incidents • Soul & End of Tragedy, MUST HAVE PLOT! Character • Tragedy Can Exist WITHOUT Characters? ! • Characters =/= Personages • Ethical Characters—Plural! Thought • Any Ideas, Opinions, Debates Expressed—Plural! • Thought =/= Theme for Aristotle Language = Verbal Expression of Thought Music = Harmony & Rhythm Spectacle = All Things Seen • Why Least Important for the Poet Writing Poetry?

What a Complex Plot Should Be • Unity of Action – Whole & Complete – Beginning, Middle, & End – No Double Plots or Subplots • • Unity of Action =/= Unity of Personage Imitate the Universal – More Like Philosophy than History – Not True =/= False, Necessarily – Counters Plato’s Forms Argument • Unity of Time? About a Day

• Have a Recognition • Clears up a Hamartia 1. Only a Miscalculation, an Inaccurate Assumption 2. NOT a “Tragic Flaw” or “Fatal Flaw” • • • Some Fates are Worse than Death A Peripety (Reversal of Fortune) + Portray Pitiful and Fearful Events All During a Tragic Act or Threat : . Catharsis of Pity & Fear (Ta da!)

What is Catharsis? • Poetics Leaves Catharsis Undefined • When Undefined = “Cleanse” • Aristotle’s Politics = A Technical Meaning – Still Leaves Catharsis Undefined! • • • Purgation? Purification? (Else’s Translation) Clarification? Something Else? WE DON’T KNOW!!! Yet “We Know it When We See it”

Politics: Why Catharsis is Good? • Ethical Arguments Persuade Rationally • Catharsis Can Emotionally Habituate Good Citizens • Remember: Ethos = Habit • Good Counter to Plato, but. . . • Is Emotionally Manipulating People to Condition Them to Behave as the State Wants. . . Good?

Worst to Best Tragedies 1. No Tragic Act, Recognition, or Reversal • Already Know Truth, No Tragic Example 2. Have Tragic Act Willfully & Knowingly (w/o Recognition or Reversal) • Euripides’ Medea 3. Have Tragic Act, Recognition, Reversal, & Catharsis but Not Simultaneously • Sophocles’ Oedipus (Surprised? !) 4. Simultaneous Tragic Act, Recognition, Reversal, & Catharsis • Euripides’ Iphigenia at Tauris (Ends Happy)

Hell Hath No Fury. . . • Characters Should Be Ethically Good, Appropriate, Natural (? ), Consistent, & Probable/Necessary • Women and Slave Can Have Good Ethical Characters BUT • Women are “Inferior” & Slaves are “Worthless” • Bravery is Inappropriate for Women • PS: Good Dénouements Come from Character of Personages, NOT from the “Machine”