Product Overview
The plot is the source and the soul of tragedy In his near contemporary account of Greek tragedy Aristotle examines the dramatic elements of plot character language and spectacle that combine to produce pity and fear in the audience and asks why we derive pleasure from this apparently painful process Taking examples from the plays of Aeschylus Sophocles and Euripides the Poetics introduces into literary criticism such central concepts as mimesis imitation hamartia error and katharsis purification Aristotle explains how the most effective tragedies rely on complication and resolution recognition and reversals centring on characters of heroic stature idealized yet true to life One of the most powerful perceptive and influential works of criticism in Western literary history the Poetics has informed serious thinking about drama ever since Malcolm Heath s lucid English translation makes the Poetics fully accessible to the modern reader It is accompanied by an extended introduction which discusses the key concepts in detail and includes suggestions for further reading New translation of Aristotle s keystone of Western dramatic criticism
