Poetics
Aristotle c. 335 BCE
This short study examines how poetry and plays tell stories, with special attention to tragedy. The story of Oedipus helps explain why a sudden discovery can change the course of a play.
54 pages 1h 3m reading time
- The oldest surviving book of literary theory in the Western world, and still one of the most influential.
- Argues that tragedy works by stirring pity and fear in the audience and then releasing them, a cleansing effect the book calls "catharsis."
- Argues that plot matters more than character, and that a good story needs a clear beginning, middle, and end, with each event following from the last.
- Gave the language words still used to talk about stories, such as "catharsis" and the "tragic flaw" (a hero's mistake or weakness that brings about their fall).
- Shaped European drama for centuries, as Renaissance critics built strict rules for plays from it, and its ideas about plot still guide screenwriting and creative writing classes today.
A missing second half
The book promises to discuss comedy later, but that part, probably a second book, has been lost.
Likely teaching notes
Scholars think its short, choppy style comes from notes for teaching, not a finished book for readers.
Kept alive in Arabic
For centuries Europe barely knew it, while Arabic scholars, including the thinker Averroes, translated and explained it.
One copy saved it
Its Greek text survives mainly through a single old handwritten copy, now kept in Paris.
Translated from Greek by S. H. Butcher