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
