Aristotle's Poetics [Paperback]

Aristotle (Author), John Baxter (Author), Patrick Atherton (Author), George Whalley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1997 | ISBN-10: 0773516123 | ISBN-13: 978-0773516120

This text combines a complete translation of Aristotle's "poetics" with a running commentary, printed on facing pages, to keep the reader in continuous contact with the linguistic and critical subtleties of the original while highlighting crucial issues for students of literature and literary theory. The volume includes two essays by George Whalley that outline his method and purpose. He identifies a deep congruence between Aristotle's understanding of mimesis and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's view of imagination.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Whalley has produced precisely the kind of volume that is needed if the Poetics is to be successfully and seriously taught at the college level. This is the only edition of the Poetics that can truly claim to introduce adequately to a reader with no knowledge of Greek the problems and issues posed by the language of Aristotle's arguments. No current edition in use at the college level brings its readers to the same level of understanding of Aristotle's text that Whalley achieves in his translation and especially in his presentation of classical scholarship through the notes prepared for this edition." David Ferris, Department of Comparative Literature, Queens College and the Graduate School, City University of New York

Product Details

• Paperback: 186 pages
• Publisher: Mcgill Queens Univ Pr (November 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0773516123
• ISBN-13: 978-0773516120
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,207,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tragedy Teaches Us Something About Life, May 8, 2008

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Michael A Neulander "Political Philosophy" (VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aristotle's Poetics: Translated and with a Commentary by George Whalley (Hardcover)

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 technç because the poets are divinely inspired. Aristotle disagrees Poetics is a handbook for playwrights. Mimçsis= "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.