Aristotle - The Poetics

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on three key distinctions he brings up early on in the work, which bear upon different kinds of mimetic arts (including tragedy, comedy, epic, other poetry, and musical performances).

The distinction is between the:
Media of the mimetic work (en hois)
Objects (or content) of the mimetic work (ha)
Mode (or how) of the mimetic work (hōs)

The six parts or elements of tragedy fall into this
Diction and Lyric Poetry are the Media
Plot, Character, and Thought are the Objects
Spectacle is the Mode

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Aristotle, Poetics - Three Distinctions In Mimesis - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on Aristotle's definition of tragedy, which runs:
"Tragedy, then, is mimesis of an action which is elevated, complete, and of magnitude; in language embellished by distinct forms in its sections; employing the mode of enactment, not nar­rative; and through pity and fear accomplishing the catharsis a of such emotions. I use "embellished'' for lan­guage with rhythm and melody, and "distinct forms" for the fact that some parts are conveyed through metrical speech alone, others again through song."

He also identifies six parts or elements of tragedy, provides definitions of them, and sets out their order of importance:
"Plot, then, is the first principle and, as it were, soul of tragedy, while character is secondary. (A similar principle also holds in painting: if one were to cover a surface ran­domly with the finest colours, one would provide less pleasure than by an outline of a picture.) Tragedy is 
mimesis of action, and it is chiefly for the sake of the
action that it represents the agents. Third in importance is thought: that is, the capacity to say what is pertinent and apt, which in formal speeches is the task of politics and rhetoric. The earliest poets made people speak polit­ically, present day poets make them speak rhetorically. Character is .that which reveals moral choice-that is, when otherwise unclear, what kinds of thing an agent chooses or rejects ( which is why speeches in which there is nothing at all the speaker chooses or rejects contain no character); while thought covers the parts in which they demonstrate that something is or is not so, or declare a general view. Fourth is the diction of the spoken sec­tions: as stated earlier, I define diction as expression through choice of words-something which has the same capacity in both verse and prose. Of the remainder, lyric poetry is the greatest embellishment, while spectacle is emotionally potent but falls quite outside the art and is not integral to poetry: tragedy'  capacity is independent of performance and actors, and, besides, the costumier's art has more scope than the poet's for rendering effects of spectacle."

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Aristotle, Poetics - Elements And Definitions Of Tragedy - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on his discussions of what he considers to be the most important part or aspect of tragedy, namely plot or story (mythos).  Aristotle stresses that a good plot is complex, but forms a unity.

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Aristotle, Poetics - Plot, Structure, And Unity - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on three key aspects of good plots: reversal (peripeteia), recognition (anagnōrisis), and suffering (pathos). 

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Aristotle, Poetics - Reversal, Recognition, And Suffering - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on  the different modes of what Aristotle calls "recognition" (anagnōrisis), one of the key features of good plots in tragedy. He writes:

"The definition of recognition was stated earlier. As for its kinds, first is the least artistic and the one used the most from uninventiveness: recognition through tokens....The second kind are those contrived by the poet, and hence inartistic. ... The third kind is through memory, when the sight of something brings awareness...Fourth is recognition by reasoning ­. . .There is also compound recognition which depends on the audience's mistaken reasoning...
Best of all is recogni­tion ensuing from the events themselves, where the emo­tional impact comes from a probable sequence."

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Aristotle, Poetics - Different Modes Of Recognition - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on Aristotle's discussion of character (ēthos), which he identifies as the second most important element or part of tragedy. He tells us:

"Character is that which reveals moral choice - that is, when otherwise unclear, what kinds of thing an agent chooses or rejects (which is why speeches in which there is nothing at all the speaker chooses or rejects contain no character); while thought covers the parts in which they demonstrate that something is or is not so, or declare a general view.

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Aristotle, Poetics - Character, Choice, And Tragedy - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on his discussions about the two emotions of pity (eleos) and fear (phobos), which Aristotle first mentions in his definition of tragedy.

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Aristotle, Poetics - Fear, Pity, And Tragedy - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on his discussion of the development of modes of poetic works, including comedy, tragedy, epic, dithyramb, among others. Aristotle explains that these develop out of the human capacity for mimesis or imitation, an aspect in which human beings excel other animals

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Aristotle, Poetics - Development Of Types Of Poetry - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on his short history of the development of tragedy as a dramatic form until its main potential has been realized, focusing on multiple aspects of its ongoing development across generations of tragedians

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Aristotle, Poetics - Development Of Tragedy Over Time - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on his discussion of lexis, usually translated as "diction" or "style", which is the fourth of six dimensions of tragedy that he identifies, and also quite important for epic poetry as well.  After an initial discussion of modes of language, Aristotle distinguishes a number of parts of lexis, including element, syllable, connective, noun, verb, inflection, and statement.  He also discusses the nature and uses of metaphors and neologisms

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Aristotle, Poetics - Parts Of Diction (Lexis) - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on his discussion about the fourth dimension of tragedy, lexis, generally translated as "diction" or "style". Aristotle provides some guidelines for how to produce excellence in lexis in tragedy and epic poetry. This involves balancing the needs of clarity and non-banality in the language one selects, which in turn requires judicious incorporation of metaphor and loan words, as well as lengthening and shortening the words one uses.

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Aristotle, Poetics - Excellence In Diction (Lexis) - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on his discussion of Epic poetry, including what elements it shares with tragedy, what makes it good, and why Homer is the paradigm for excellent epic poetry

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Aristotle, Poetics - Epic Poetry - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on his views on what by his time had come to be called "problems" (problemata) mainly of criticism and their "solutions" (luseis) when it comes to poetry, particularly epic poetry. Aristotle's view is that many of these can be addressed by looking carefully at the language and the meanings in passages or compositions that are being criticized.

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Aristotle, Poetics - Problems And Solutions - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle' work, the Poetics, focusing on his discussion near the end of the work focused upon the question whether tragedy or epic is superior as a poetic genre. Aristotle argues that tragedy is the superior genre.

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Aristotle, Poetics - Is Tragedy Or Epic Superior? - Sadler's Lectures

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