Aristotle's Poetics / Edition 2

by Stephen Halliwell

Overview

In this, the fullest, sustained interpretation of Aristotle's Poetics available in English, Stephen Halliwell demonstrates that the Poetics, despite its laconic brevity, is a coherent statement of a challenging theory of poetic art, and it hints towards a theory of mimetic art in general. Assessing this theory against the background of earlier Greek views on poetry and art, particularly Plato's, Halliwell goes further than any previous author in setting Aristotle's ideas in the wider context of his philosophical system.

The core of the book is a fresh appraisal of Aristotle's view of tragic drama, in which Halliwell contends that at the heart of the Poetics lies a philosophical urge to instill a secularized understanding of Greek tragedy.

"Essential reading not only for all serious students of the Poetics . . . but also for those--the great majority--who have prudently fought shy of it altogether."--B. R. Rees, Classical Review

"A splendid work of scholarship and analysis . . . a brilliant interpretation."--Alexander Nehamas, Times Literary Supplement

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226313948
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	12/01/1998
Edition description:	1
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	761,440
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Stephen Halliwell is Professor of Greek at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of The Poetics of Aristotle: Translation and Commentary, also published by BCP, and Greek Laughter: A Study of Cultural Psychology from Homer to Early Christianity.

Table of Contents

Introduction to 1988 edition
Abbreviations
I. The Setting of the Poetics
II. Aristotle's Aesthetics 1: Art and its Pleasure
III. Aristotle's Aesthetics 2: Craft, Nature and Unity in Art
IV. Mimesis
V. Action and Character
VI. Tragedy and the Emotions
VII. Fallibility & Misfortune: The Securlarisation of the Tragic
VIII. The Chorus of Tragedy
IX. Epic, Comedy and Other Genres
X. Influence & Status: the Nachleben of the Poetics
App. 1 The Date of the Poetics
App. 2 The Poetics and Plato
App. 3 Drama in the Theatre: Aristotle on Spectacle (opsis)
App. 4 Aristotle on Language (lexis)
App. 5 Interpretations of katharsis
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A splendid work of scholarship and analysis. . . . In Halliwell's book, the Poetics has acquired a brilliant new interpretation; its meaning will now be even more keenly disputed than before.—Times Literary Supplement

Editorial Reviews

This useful book, an extended study of the Poetics , treats such subjects as Aristotle's general aesthetic views; mimesis; pity, fear, and katharsis; recognition, reversal, and hamartia; tragic misfortune; the nontragic genres; and the historical influence of the work. Aristotle emerges as holding a deeply cognitivist view of poetry and as rejecting the attempt to judge art primarily by external (e.g., moral, political) criteria; his call for the relative autonomy of art, however, neither commits him to an aestheticist view nor prevents him from attributing to art a significant moral dimension. Halliwell's attempts to keep Plato in close view and to keep the Poetics within the context of Aristotle's philosophy as a whole are illuminating. For academic collections. Richard Hogan, Philosophy Dept., Southeastern Massachusetts Univ., N. Dartmouth

Library Journal

A work which must become essential reading no only for all serious students of the Poetics, including those who, like [this] reviewer, have dabbled in it from time to time, but also for those (the great majority) who have prudenty fought shy of it altogether.
— Classical Review

B. R. Rees

A splendid work of scholarship and analysis ... in Halliwell s book, the Poetics has acquired a brilliant new interpretation.

Here is the essential guide for the student of the brief and puzzling Poetics, whether reading the Poetics on its own account as an Aristotelian treatise, or as the earliest work on those problems, about tragedy especially, that are still discussed in literary theory.

Stephen Halliwell s Aristotle s Poetics is, quite simply, the best book available on that difficult work. With a rare combination of literary subtlety and philosophical insight, Halliwell demonstrates convincingly that the Poetics must be read in the context of Aristotle s ethical and social thought. Again and again, he shows how this approach enriches our understanding of the text. ... This is a work of fundamental importance for anyone pursuing the study of ancient literature and literary theory.

From the Publisher