NAME :- PIPAVAT GOPI
CLASS :- M.A PART -1
ROLL NO :- 31
TOPIC : PLOTO'S OBJECT TO ARISTOTEL'S POETRY
PLOTO’S OBJECT TO ARISTOTEL’S POETRY
*Plato’s
main three questions to poetry, are that:
-1)
poetry are not ethical ,philosophical and pragmatic , in words,
-2)
he objected to poetry from the point of view of education
-3)
from moral point of view
-what
were his objection?
-why
is his theory of mimesis?
-what
is his theory of mimesis?
INTRODUCTION
:
*Ploto
was a gret poet, a mystic and a philosopher. Aristote - the most distinguished disciple of Ploto was
a critic, scholar, logician and practical philosopher .The master was an inspired genius every greter than the
disciple except in logic , analysis and common sense. He is known for his
critical treatise : (!) the poetics and (!!) the rhetoric, dealing with art of
speking ,resp.
*For
centuries during roman age in Europe and after
renaissance , Aristotel was honored as a law –giver and legislator.Even today his critical
!theories remain largely relevant ,and for this he certainly deserves our
admiration and esteem.
*THE
NATURE OF POETRY; POETIC INSPIRATION: THEORY OF INSPIRATION:
Aristole agrees with ploto in
calling the poet an imitator and creative art , imitation.he imitates one of
the three objects – things as they were/are , things as they are said/thought
to be or present, what is commonly believed and what is ideal. Aristotel believes
that there is natural pleasure in imitation that enables the child to learn his
earliest lessons in speech and conduct from those round him, because there is a
pleasure in doing so. In a grown up child – a poet, there is another instinct,
helping him to make him a poet the instinct for harmony and rhythm.
He does not agree with his teacher
in – poet’s imitation is twice removed form reality and hence unreal/illusion
of truth. to prove his point he compares poetry with history the poet and the
historian differ not by their –medium, but the true difference is that the
historian relates ‘what has happened? The poet, what may/ought to have happened?-
the ideal. Poetry ,therefore , is more philosophical and higher thing than the
history. Which expresses the particular,while poetry tends to expressthe
universal. Therefore the picture of poetry pleases all and at all times.
Aristotel does not agree with ploto
in function of poetry to make people weaker and emotional/too sentimental.For
him, catharsis is ennobling and humbles human being.
So
far as moral nature of poetry is concerned , aristotel believed that the end of
poetry is to please;however ,teaching may be given.Such pleasing is superior to
the other pleasure
because it teaches civic morality.so all good
literature gives pleasure which is not divorced from moral lessons.
*PLATO’S
VALUABL CONTRYBUTION TO THE STUDY OF ART LITERATURE
He was the first who
inquired into the nature of imaginative literature and put forward theories which are both illiuminating and
provocative.he was poet. His dialogues
are full of poetic beauty.
-His objections =”the imitator or maker of the
image knows nothing of true existence
;he knows appearance only….
-The imitative art is an inferior who marries
an inferior and has inferior offspring”
-Ploto felt that poetry, like all forms of
art , appeals to the inferior part of
the soul , the irrational , emotional cowardly part.the reader of poetry
is seduced in to feeling undesirable emotions.
- to plato , an appreciation of poetry is
incompatible with an appreciation of
reason ,
Justice , and the search for truth.
- in the lon he suggest that poery causes
needless lamentation and ecstasies at the imaginary events of sorrow and
happiness.
CLASSIFICATION
OF VARIOUS ART FORMS : TRAGEDY, COMEDY AND EPIC
:
* Object , medium and manner of imitation
decides type of poetry;
Object : which subject is imitated ? life
of great people is imitated ?this will make that work tragedy/epic or
comedy/satire.
David
daiches writes explaining the classification of poetry according to the
aspect of life and the kinds of people
it represents- they are either better than they are in real life, or worse, or
the same.
One could present characters that is on
the grand or heroic scale ; or could treat ironically or humorously the petty fgollies of men ;or one could aim
at naturalism presenting men neither heightened nor trivialized…Tragedy deals
men on a heroic scale , men better than
they are In every day life , where as comedy deals with the more trivial
aspect of human nature, with characters worse than they are in real life.
Medium : what sort of medium is used to
imitate life? Colours , words, music ?when words are used , how are they used,
I mean ,what meter /verse are used as medium ?that makes tragedy different
from other fine arts as well as comedy
also
The
types of literature ,says aristotel can
again be distinguished according to the medium of representation.the different
of medium between a poet and a painter is clear ; one uses word with their
denotative , cannotative ,rhythmic and musical aspects ;the other uses forms
and colours.likewise tragedy writer may make use of one kind of meter , and the
comedy writer of another.
Manner(mode) : In what manner is imitations of life
presented ? by action of narration ? this differentiate tragedy from epic..
The kind of literatuere can be distinguished and determined also
according to the techniques they employ.david
daitches :“ the poet can tell a story in
narrative form and partly though the speeches of the character ( as homer does) , or it can all be done in
third – peson narrative , or the story can be presented dramatically,with no
use of third person narrative at all.”
· PLATO – THE PHILOSOPHER
Philosophy is better than poetry because philosopher deals with idea /
truth , whereas poet deals with what appears to him / illusion. He believed
that truth of philosopher was more important than the pleasure of poetry. As a
moralist plato
disapproves of poetry because it is immoral, as a
philosopher he disapproves of it because it is based in falsehood. Plato’s chief
interest was philosophical investigations which form the of dialogues. He was
nut a professed critic of literature and his critical observation are not found
in any single book. They lie scattered in seven of his dialogues, more
particularly in the lon, the the symposium, the republic and the laws
ART –TWICE REMOVED FROM
REALITY-ILLUSION!
According to him all arts are
imitative or mimetic in nature.he wrote in the republic that ‘ideas are the
ultimate reality’. Things are conceived as ideas before they take practical
shapes. so, idea is original and the thing is copy of that idea.carpenter’s
chair is the result of the idea of chair in his mind. thus , the chair is once removed from
reality. But painter’s chair is
imitation of carpenter’s chair.so it is
twice removed form reality. thus artist/ poet takes man away from reality
rather than towards it. Thus artist deals in ilussion.
NATURE AND FUNCATION OF TRAGEDY:
Definition:
tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious. Complete, and of a
certain magnitude: in the language embellished with each kind of artistic
ornament, the several, kind being found in separate part of the play : in the
form of action, not of narrative: through pity and fear effecting the proper
purgation-catharsis of these and similar emotions.”
The
definition is compact. Ever word of it is pregnant with meaning. Each word from
it can be elaborated into a separate essay.
Ali
art is representation(imitation)of life, but none can represent life in its
totality. Therefore, an artist has to be selective in representation.
He
must him at representing or imitating an aspect of life or a fragment of life.
Action
comprises of all human activities including deeds, thoughts and feeling. (so,
soliloquies chorus etc is also action)
The
writer of ‘tragedy’ seeks to imitate the serious side of life just as a writer
of comedy seeks to imitate only the shallow and superficial side.
The
tragic section presented on the stage in a drama should be complete or self
contained with a beginning middle and an end. A beginning is that before which
the audience of the reader does not need to be told anything to understand the
story. If something more is required to understand the story than the beginning
gives, it is unsatisfactory. From it follow the middle in their turn the events
from the middle lead to the end thus the story becomes a compact and self
sufficient one. It must not leave the impression that even after their end the
action continues, or that before the action starts certain things remain to be
knows.
It
must have close-knit unit with nothing that is superfluous or unnecessary.
Every episode every character and a dialogue in the play must carry step by
step the action that is set into motion to its logical denouement. It must give
the impression of wholeness at the end.
The
play must have, then, a definite magnitude, a proper size or a reasonable
length such as the mind may comprehend fully. That is to say that it must have
only necessary duration, not longer than about three hour, or shorter than
that. Longer duration may tire our patience and shorter one make effecting
representation impossible.
THEORY OF CATHARSIS:
At the exact meaning and concept of catharsis,
there has been a lot of controversy among scholars and critics down the
centuries. Therefore it deserved
separate treatment.
“ In the meaning of catharsis “ First there has been age –long controversy about aristotel’s meaning ,though
it has almost always been accepted that whatever he meant was profoundly right.
Many, for example , have translated catharsis as ‘purification’ , ‘correction
or refinement’, ‘reinigung’ , or the like. It has been suggested that our pity and fear are ‘purified’ in the
theatre by becoming disinterested . it is bad to be selfishly sentimental ,
timid , and querulous ; but it is good to pity othelo or to fear for hamlet.
Our selfish emotion has been sublimated. All this is most edifying ; but it
does not appear to be what Aristotle intended.”
F.L lucas observes :“one could , of course ,
argues that these good folks were instinctively
craving a catharsis. But I should have thought they were suffering in
their daily lives, not from excess of emotion, but from deficiency; that wanted;
not to be ‘purge’, but to be fed- that they were hungry and thirsty for
emotions that the dull round of their days denied.”
ARISTOTLE AGAINST PLATO ON POETRY AND DRAMA:
What
led Aristotle to adopt this theory? It should be remembered that plato, his
master, has attacked poetry in general including tragedy form moral and
philosophical point of view. So Aristotle had to defend poetry against his
master’s attack on the moral and philosophical ground. He has to refute plato’s
charges. To quote f.L.Lucas
“poetry,
said plato, makes men cowardly by its picture of the afterworld. No, replies
Aristotle, it can purge men’s fear. Poetry, said plato, encourages men to be
hysterical and uncontrolled. On the contrary, answers his pupil, it makes them
less, not more, emotional by giving a periodic healthy out to their feelings.
In short, Aristotle’s definition of tragedy is half a defence.”
*PLATO
ON DRAMA :
To
him drama is the most dangerous form of literature because the author is
imitating things that he/she does not understand.
Plato
seemingly feels that no words are strong enough to condemn drama.
Plato
felt that all the world’s evils derived form one source: a faulty understanding
of reality.
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