Aristotle's Poetics

Aristotle's poetics was so hard for me to work through! Not only was it dense, but long...complex to say the least. Thankfully, Dr. Sexson provided us with a summary of each chapter in hopes that we would understand it more clearly.

Aristotle not only lays out the generals of poetics, but includes an in depth analysis of the differences between tragedy and comedy in poetics.

Imitation is of much importance in Aristotle's poetics. Imitation is what really distinguishes comedy from tragedy in poetry. Poetry can even be traced back to the makeup of imitation psychologically, according to Aristotle.

Plot (mythos), character (ethos) and thought (dianoia) play a major role in tragedy. The plot is of the most importance and is also where emotions are heightened. The character helps to form the moral or expression in Tragedy. Thought is expressed through rhetoric and diction is expressed mainly through the delivery of the poetry.

Percy Shelley- "A Defence of Poetry"

Shelley's A Defence of Poetry, is a piece of work that brings about MANY lightbulb moments. Shelley's entire piece becomes one large lightbulb. The work as a whole is of interest to me and really drew me in because I myself am a fan of the romantics and poetics in general.
As we discussed in class, we have to lift the veil to see what has always been there, which Shelley helps us to do in regards to poetry.

"Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds."
While I agree with Shelley, I must also disagree to some extent. I have read some poetry which is not the happiest, but may have certainly come from the best minds. Perhaps, we could consider the sad moments leading to happy moments though in which case Shelley's statement would me absolutely correct.

"Poetry is indeed something divine."
Poetry indeed could be considered heavenly and exquisite. I myself consider it that way. For poetry to strike me as divine it must evoke emotions. I may not necessarily have to relate it to "real" life (whatever that is), but to simply connect with it on some level. Poetry allows you to live in the life that it describes (wow, that sounds errily similar to Don Quixote).

This is a "divine" moment where Shelley's Defence took me away and it was as if I had so many lightbulb moments they all went on at the same time and created a spark...which was so quickly lost.
"What were Virtue, Love, Patriotism Friendship, etc.- what were the scenery of this beautiful Universe which we inhabit- what were our consolations on this side of the grave- and what were our aspirations behind it- if poetry did not ascend to bring light and fire from those eternal regions where the owl-winged faculty of calculation dare not ever soar?"
~If poetry did not allow us to lose ourselves in our experiences and those of the Universe, then what of them would we know or have to sustain our knowledge. Where would our knowledge of these things if we only went so far as to where the veil allowed us to? The veil is there to be snuck around, to open so that we may gain knowledge. As Shelley did and many poets have, the veil was lifted and their knowledge of what was hidden has come out through poetry and literature.

"Poetry turns all things to loveliness; it exalts the beauty of that which is most beautiful, and it adds beauty to that which is most deformed; it marries exultation and horror, grief and pleasure, eternity and change; it subdues to union under its light yoke all irreconcilable things."
~Poetry does make all things lovely, even those things that may augment sadness within us. All of the above things mentioned in Shelley's Defence are made beautiful through poetry. But how? Is it through the language? The images which are created through the poem itself? Or do we possibly create beauty for it through poetry in order to accept it? Unison can somehow be created between opposites and contradictions.

Shelley opened my eyes to poetry and its beauty more than any other piece of work I had read that defended or supported poetry in some way. Shelley's use of language evokes a sense of understanding, beauty and relation to poetry.

Marxist Criticism

A brief overview of Marxist Criticism (group 5):

Marxist Criticism is a reflection of social institutions paying close attention to the background and ideology of the author when looking at literary works. Literature influence by Marxist Criticism sometimes clearly reflects the author's class. Class struggle plays a large role in Marxist views and there is a lot of emphasis put economical/ ideological state of affairs. Marxist Criticism influenced western writers such as James Joyce and Richard Wright to name a few. Marxist Criticism does address economical, social/ political issues, yet also addresses cultural sciences.

Recurrent terms in Marxist Criticism include:

Base Vs. Superstructure: the economic base- superstructures emerging from this base include philosophy, religion, art, law and politics

Ideology: a culture's shared beliefs or values. What the culture finds to be standard and valuable. Ideology is influenced by economics in Marxist Criticism.

Hegemony: Influences the way things look and their meaning. This influence also leads to the way people within a particular culture believe reality to be.

Reification: The way people are changed into "commodities" and found beneficial in Market Exchange. The media will express pathos, yet underneath that "fake" expression of emotion they flourish upon sad/ tragic events economically.

Glossary of Literary Criticism

So...I was looking on-line and found this interesting "A Glossary of Literary Criticism". It is basically a compilation of terms, many of which we have learned/ used in class this semester. It also seems to mirror much of what Northrop Frye brings to our attention in "Anatomy of Criticism".

These are just terms and definitions, but honestly sometimes the language in class goes over my head so I have found this to be useful.

Here is the link if you'd like to check it out:
http://web.mac.com/radney/humanities/litcrit/gloss.htm

Dante- Epistle to Can Grande

Dante was easy for me to read through, but very difficult to understand. I tried to summarize each major point to help myself better understand it.

Dante addresses friendships and the inequality within them. Friendship is very important to Dante and is made clear when he says refers back to moral philosophy "that friendship is returned and preserved by similarity."

Dante also refers to philosophy- metaphysics...well, that right there goes over my head! It is so clear, yet so complex the point that is being made. Each thing (being) depends on something to survive. Each relationship that things have with each other lead to some sort of dependence upon another thing. This to me sounds tautological, yet makes sense...

Dante seems very poetic in his explanations and at the end of Epistle to Can Grande, I felt as if he was getting at the point that we cannot always express vocally what we see in our mind. Perhaps, in writing the imagery becomes stronger therefore it is easier to express what we see in our mind, but vocally will no talways cut it.

Northrop Frye- Symbols

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Northrop Frye's Theory of Symbols chapter in Anatomy of Criticism. I could not seem to put it down, even though I had a very difficult time trying to understand it! I found myself highlighting a lot of passages from Frye. I continuously found passages that I felt were interesting, intriguing and of course unknown material to me.



One of the passages in the symbols chapter that I actually seemed to understand:

"...the criticism of literature can hardly be a simple or one- level activity." (page 71)

This seemed very clear to me, of ocurse criticism is difficult and complex because it must be done with respect to what it is critiquing (in my opinion), while also paying close attention to not contradict itself. Criticism of literature should also look at the work of literature as a whole, yet it seems that it may also be appropriate for a critic to pick apart the work piece by piece so as to assure the work as a whole has been evaluated.

Northrop Frye- Modes

My introduction to Northrop Frye was captivating, yet I found it problematic to absorb all the information I was being given. While reading Frye's modes chapter at the beginning of the semester I was inquisitive to see if a majority of the class was in my position also. Thankfull, some were and still are as we move have just moved through "The Theory of Symbols".

I was overwhelmed with how much I did not know when reading the "Theory of Modes"- that was until Dr. Sexson gave us the much needed advice of "Do not pay attention to what you don't understand, but rather what you do understand". So I was determined that in the whole entire chapter, there had to be at least one thing that made sense to me or that I could at least attempt to make sense of.

"New comedy normally presents an erotic intrigue between a young man and a young woman which is blocked by some kind of opposition, usually paternal, and resolved by a twist in the plot which is the comic of Aristotle's 'discovery'..."
-I found some sort of connection to this passage of Frye's in "Anatomy of Criticism"
because it reminded me of so many romantic comedies or romantic dramas in the
theaters that I have been a sucker to go see. The boy and girl fall in love, but are kept
from each other because their parents hate the other one or vice versa...am I on the right
track here?