Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 08:47:21 -0500 (EST)
Subject: BHA: Aristotle the joker



               State University of New York at Stony Brook
                       Stony Brook, NY 11794-3355

                                            Michael Sprinker
                                            Professor of English & Comp Lit
                                            Comparative Studies
                                            516 632-9634
                                            26-Jan-1998 08:42am EST
FROM:  MSPRINKER
TO:    Remote Addressee                     ( _bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu )
 
Subject: Aristotle the joker

Tobin, et al.,

Go back and re-read those opening chapters of the Poetics.
The history of the emergence of tragedy, of its differentiation
from other imitative arts, of how it came be distinct from
both epic and comedy, and so forth is rather more complex
than you allow.  The origins of tragedy in the dithyrambic
chorus is a Nietzschean genalogy, not Aristotle's.

I gather you're into spectacle and music--fair enough, but
Aristotle has a point:  these are the least significant
aspects of the tragic action.  Plots matter more than
presentation, a point Brecht appreciated, incidentally.

Cheers,

Michael Sprinker
Local devotee of the Poetics (and old Aristotle generally)


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