Resumo de Poetics - Aristotle

Allegedly a collection of lecture notes, Aristotle's
"Poetics" seeks to chronicle traits and similarities of successful
tragedies of his time. It is important to note here, however,
that most scholars agree the term "tragedy" as Aristotle used it refers
not to our modern ideals of a Hamlet-esque denouement but rather to all
forms of drama, with the exception of slapstick comedy. The term
"tragedy" is allegedly named after any play that qualified in the drama
competitions, though some people dispute this. Aristotle winnowed
out six general qualities that serve to make a sound tragedy: Plot,
Character, Thought, Diction, Melody and Spectacle. These are
still fundamental to much of the drama being written today (with the
obvious exception of avant-garde dramatists such as Brecht).
    Plot is by far the most important constituent to
Aristotle. He maintains that there should be a "unity of plot" in
the sense that it should develop from beginning to end in an organized
and logical manner. The beginning is what requires nothing to
come before it and the middle to come after it etc. The end is
that which requires nothing to come after it yet is a logical
continuation of the beginning and the middle. Aristotle also
points out the presence of "peripeteia" in many of the plays he
studied. This is commonly referred to as the reversal, and is
still very prominent and surprisingly effective after thousands of
years. The film "The Usual Suspects" springs to mind as an
excellent (Oscar-winning) example. Without plot, says the
philosopher, nothing else matters.
    Character and Thought are complementary qualities,
and the line between them is often indistinct. Thought is perhaps
the more easily identifiable of the two, it is generally what is
expressed through the character's dialogue and actions. Character
is subtler and is usually comprised of the internal motivations and
quirks of characters that make them behave they way they do. The
need to speak a soliloquy could be borne out of Character, though he
expresses Thought.
    Aristotle's chapters on Diction are concerned mainly
with spoken language and metaphor, as could be imagined. He
argues for the dramatist to take the "middle road" between expressing
himself clearly and yet not coarsely. He divides metaphor into
four sections according to usage, though perhaps it is more obvious to
the reader in Greek.
    Melody and Spectacle are never addressed directly in
"Poetics", another reason most people think they are incomplete
outlines for a lecture. However, melody is generally accepted to
represent the tone of the work, and how the plot should keep in the
same tone so as to avoid confusion. This is not to mean that a
tragedy should be devoid of humor, but that the humor should be
well-founded in the plot and carried throughout the piece.
Spectacle is often compared to modern filmmaking as Aristotle uses it
to refer to the visual presentation of the piece.
    Two important words that Aristotle uses in his work
are "mimesis" and "katharsis". Mimesis is often translated,
though rather roughly, as "imitation". As Aristotle used it the
word signifies the sharing of artistic visions through some variety of
representation. It is the ability to create in someone else's
mind the images and ideas of your own, and in fact is at the heart of
filmmaking even today. Katharsis is translated usually as
"purification", and was central to the tragedy of Grecian life that
this essay can't delve into. To put it shortly, tragedy was often
used as a tool to "cleanse" the emotion that accompanied the difficult
lives they lived. It was a way to release these feelings so one
could return to the toils of daily life. The feeling is often
compared to the sense of relief and emptiness that usually occurs after
crying during a movie. Afterwards, you can return to your own
life and observe that what you have to go through everyday isn't all
that bad, or at least as not as bad as it could be.
    Now that you have a rough idea of what to expect, go check it out.

Resumos Relacionados