Aristotle's Poetics

Name: Aristotle's Poetics
Brand: Author's Republic
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4 (1 reviews)
Author: Aristotle
ISBN: 9781518933851

Author: Aristotle

Narrator: Ray Childs

Unabridged: 1 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: AB Publishing

Published: 09/05/2016

Categories: Nonfiction, Language Arts, Linguistics, Fiction, Poetry, Ancient & Classical Poetry

Synopsis

Aristotle's Poetics is best known for its definitions and analyses of tragedy and comedy, but it also applies to truth and beauty as they are manifested in the other arts. In our age, when the natural and social sciences have dominated the quest for truth, it is helpful to consider why Aristotle claimed poetry is more philosophical and more significant than history. Like so many other works by Aristotle, the Poetics has dominated the way we have thought about all forms of dramatic performance in Europe and America ever since. The essence of poetry lies in its ability to transcend the particulars of everyday experience and articulate universals, not merely what has happened but what might happen and what ought to happen.

© Agora Publications

About Aristotle

Aristotle (384-322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato, and a tutor to Alexander the Great. His writings, on such diverse subjects as rhetoric, logic, politics, ethics, biology, physics, and poetry, comprise some of the foundations of Western philosophy. He wrote as many as 200 treatises during his lifetime, of which only 31 survive. Of these, Aristotle's best-known works include Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics, Politics, and On the Soul.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Glenn on March 06, 2024

During the golden age of ancient Greece bards roamed the countryside mesmerizing crowds by reciting the epics of Homer. Thousands of men and women gathered and were moved to tears by tragedies performed outside in amphitheaters during sacred festivals. Such an amazingly powerful and profound experie......more

Goodreads review by Sean Barrs on March 26, 2017

It’s odd that the most ancient essay on literary criticism is one of the easiest to understand. It is so accessible. If you compare this to works by Nietzsche, Hegel and Freud the extremities of this can easily be seen. Aristotle explains his theory in the most basic language possible with no artful......more

Goodreads review by Bill on September 10, 2019

If you want to learn about tragedy--or narrative in general--this is still the best place to start.......more

Goodreads review by Ben on May 13, 2023

The title is misleading; Aristotle discusses in this treatise not poetry but drama, and in particular the tragedy. The confusion rises from the fact that Classical Greek plays used to be written in metred verse. Aristotle's analysis is so lucid and systematic that it is hard to believe that this boo......more

Goodreads review by Cindy on February 17, 2023

I read this for The Literary Life Podcast. Fascinating ideas that spark thought and discussion. I do not think this would in any way be a modern manual for writing, although I do think there are helpful ideas which spark further thinking.......more