Poetics

Copyright Page
Title Page
Contents
Introduction
Note on the Texts and Translations
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Aristotle
Outline of the Poetics
From Plato, Republic, Books 2, 3, and 10
Aristotle, Poetics
I. The Various Kinds of Poetry
1. Introduction: poetry as a species of representation
Differences of medium
2. Differences of objects
3. Differences in mode
4. The origins of poetry and its early development
Tragedy
5. Comedy
Epic
II. The Nature of Tragedy
6. Definition
Basic elements of tragedy
The primacy of plot
7. Characteristics of a good plot
Completeness
Scale
8. Unity
9. Universality and necessity
10. Types and elements of plot
11. Reversal and discovery
12. The sequence of scenes in tragedy
III. Excellence in Tragedy
13. Guidelines for plot construction
14. Source of the tragic effect
15. Character in tragedy
16. Further thoughts on discovery
17. Advice to playwrights
18. Different kinds of tragedy
Final advice on plot construction
19. Style and intellectual content
20. Basic concepts of linguistics
21. The classification of nouns
22. Excellence in poetic style
IV. Epic
23. The whole and its parts
24. Epic and tragedy compared
The excellence of Homer
25. How to respond to Homer’s critics
The inferiority of epic to tragedy
From Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry
From P. B. Shelley, A Defence of Poetry
From D. L. Sayers, ‘Aristotle on Detective Fiction’
A Note on Metre
Explanatory Notes
Glossary of Key Terms
Index