Marissa N: Poetics

Aristotle’s Poetics is quite an interesting reading despite only containing his writings on tragedy and epic poetry, and missing his lost writings on comedy. Aristotle analyses poetry in a scientific manner, which I do not feel is appropriate. Poetry is not scientific, there is not a scientific formula for crafting a poem that will appeal to all readers equally. Aristotle defines tragedy with seven characteristics: mimicry, seriousness, full length story, rhythm and harmony, different extremities of rhythm and harmony, performance, and catharsis. I do not think that all seven of these characteristics must be present to have a satisfactory tragedy. I have seen tragic films that did not incorporate catharsis at the end. I have also experienced a tragedy that was narrated as opposed to performed. Aristotle was a wise man but I differ with him a bit on this.