The Poetics - Aristotle
Aristotle is the first great critic of the Western World. He is also know as the Father of the Literary Criticism. More than Plato, he was the person who was called the first scientific critic as he combined literature with the spirit of a scientist. One of his renowned work is mentioned in his poem named The Poetics. The Poetics mainly deal with famous theory of Imitation or Memesis. Actually Plato was the first person who used this theory but Aristotle breathed into it a new and definite meaning. According to Aristotle, Imitation does not mean mere Mimicry.On other hand, it has become an art of imaginative creation. By using it, the poet makes something new out of things taken from nature. There are two modes of imitation i.e. Poetry and Fine Arts. These include Epic Poetry, Comedy, Tragedy, Dancing and Music. Aristotle further adds that these arts differ from one another in three respects: their medium of imitation, object of imitation and manner of imitation. In the same way, different poetry have different means of imitation. Such include rhythm, melody and verse. Tragedy and Comedy are two important function of poetry. Plato compares poetry with painting. But Aristotle compares poetry with music. In this respect, the musician is near to the poet than the painter. Thus, the musician likes the poet imitates through rhythm and harmony. Tragedy and Epic represent men on a heroic scale and Comedy represents men of a lower type worse than they are. It means that poetry does not aim at photography. On the contrary, it is a creative process. Poetry enables the artist to reveal deepest feelings of heart of man. The poet imitates men as they are, or as they were or as they ought to be. Thus Aristotle concept of imitation was none other than recreation.
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