Aristotle Flashcards
organic unity
the idea that in any good work of art each of the parts must contribute to the overall success of the whole
Unified action
with its several incidents so closely connected that the transposal or withdrawal of any one of them will disjoin and dislocate the whole”
The only way of acquiring knowledge at all, according to Aristotle
through the senses and so developing, exercising and sharpening those senses through art was a healthy thing to do
(Successful Tragic) Drama always teaches
morality
pathos
Aristotle defined pathos in terms of a public speaker putting the audience in the right frame of mind by appealing to the audience’s emotions. He further defined emotion as states of mind involving pleasure and pain, which in turn influence our perceptions.
2 functions of the work of art
to imitate nature’s perceptual detail and to imitate nature’s “organic unity.”
Poetry is not equal to
imitation
poetry is more ________ than history
philosophical
Poetry describes “not the thing that has happened” as Aristotle imagines history does “but
a kind of thing that might happen, (i.e, what is possible) as being probable or necessary”
The aim of tragedy, Aristotle writes, is to bring
about a “catharsis” of the spectators — to arouse in them sensations of pity and fear, and to purge them of these emotions so that they leave the theater feeling cleansed and uplifted, with a heightened understanding of the ways of gods and men.
According to Aristotle, tragedy has six main elements:
plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle (scenic effect), and song (music),
which 2 elements are the primary elements of tragedy
Plot and Character
Tragedy is an imitation, not of
men, but of action and life, of happiness and misery.
________________ is the soul of the tragedy
Plot
aim of a tragedy is to arouse
pity and fear through an alteration in the status of the central character, he must be a figure with whom the audience can identify and whose fate can trigger these emotions.
Hero’s error
hamartia
These are ________________ where the opposite of what was planned or hoped for by the protagonist takes place,
“reversal” (peripeteia),
the point when the protagonist recognizes the truth of a situation, discovers another character’s identity, or comes to a realization about himself.
anagnorisis- recognition
3 kinds of unities
time
action
place
chief function of poetry
to give pleasure to the reader
ristotle says that imitation, harmony and rhythm of poetry are made for pleasure.
Aristotle calls poet -
imitator
what is superior - tragedy or epic?
tragedy
Poetics” Aristotle says that tragedy is superior to epic because of various reasons.
Epic is meant only to be read and not to be staged. On the other hand tragedy can be read as well as to be staged.
Secondly, tragedy also appeals to a cultivated audience when merely read.
Finally, when tragedy is performed in the theatre, music is added to it and gets greater pleasure than the pleasure that epic gives to the reader.
The plot is divided into which two parts
They are complications and denouement.
Denouement means the unraveling of a plot or story.
In complication, events are tied up into a difficult knot, but in the denouement, these difficult knots are broken or untied.
poetry depicts two actions-
he noble actions of good men and the mean actions of bad men.
