Ancient Aesthetics, Literary Theory - Major Critics, Dramatic Theory, General & Miscellaneous Drama - Literary Criticism, Aristotle - Ancient Greek Philosophy

Tragic Pleasures: Aristotle on Plot and Emotion

Name: Tragic Pleasures: Aristotle on Plot and Emotion
Author: Elizabeth Belfiore
ISBN: 9780691068992

by Elizabeth Belfiore

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Overview

Elizabeth Belfiore offers a striking new interpretation of Aristotle's Poetics by situating the work within the Aristotelian corpus and in the context of Greek culture in general. In Aristotle's Rhetoric, the Politics, and the ethical, psychological, logical, physical, and biological works, Belfiore finds extremely important but largely neglected sources for understanding the elliptical statements in the Poetics. The author argues that these Aristotelian texts, and those of other ancient writers, call into question the traditional view that katharsis in the Poetics is a homeopathic process - one in which pity and fear affect emotions like themselves. She maintains, instead, that Aristotle considered katharsis to be an allopathic process in which pity and fear purge the soul of shameless, antisocial, and aggressive emotions. While exploring katharsis, Tragic Pleasures analyzes the closely related question of how the Poetics treats the issue of plot structure. In fact, Belfiore's wide-ranging work eventually discusses every central concept in the Poetics, including imitation, pity and fear, necessity and probability, character, and kinship relations.

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Library Journal

Few works have inspired more argument and speculation throughout the centuries than Aristotle's Poetics . Belfiore is the latest contributor to this ancient argument. Taking into consideration significant works of the period, along with the ancient Greeks' understanding of society, psychology, and biology, Belfiore reexamines and challenges the nature of catharsis and how tragic plot affects the emotions of the audience. The author challenges the traditional understanding of the homeopathic nature of catharsis, maintaining that most modern readers do not examine the ideas expressed in the Poetics within their historical context and therefore misinterpret Aristotle's formulations. About Tragic Pleasures , Belfiore states, ``I will have accomplished what I set out to do if I can suggest some new ways of looking at old problems'': a noble aim, successfully achieved. For educated readers.-- Jacqueline Garlesky, Cambria Cty. Lib., Johnstown, Pa.