Post on 15-Jan-2016
Aristotle Poetics
Dramatic ElementsDramatic Unities
Let there be LIGHT
Six Elements
PlotCharactersThought, motivationVerbal expression, script Song composition music/choralVisual adornment set/costume
Plot Plot-a tragedy cannot exist without a plot;
can exist without characters The basic principle, the “heart and soul”,
the structure of the events
CharactersCharacters defined by context; actionImitates the persons primarily for the sake of
the action; clearly reveals the bent of man’s moral choice
Thought
Motivation of characters; the ability to state the issues and appropriate points pertaining to a given topic; the passages in which they (characters) try to prove something is or is not so, or state some general principle.
verbal expression
How do we get rid of the man?
What do you mean?A Script:
conveyance of thought through language
Song composition
music/choral
the greatest of the sensuous attractions (through language)
visual adornment
Sets/costume
which has strong emotional effect (least connected with the poetic art)
PLOTS
Simple Plots: continuous without reversal Complex plots: reversal-recognition: a shift from ignorance to awareness -“peripety” what is being undertaken to the opposite Peripeteia- a reversal of fortune, for better or for worse, for the protagonist. Used to describe a character’s fall in Greek tragedy.
Aristotle’s Dramatic Unities
There are two dramatic unities outlined in PoeticsScholars later interpreted Aristotle’s ideas and as rules and added the third.....
Unity of Time- Aristotle noted that a play’s action usually
occurs in one day (or a little more)
Unity of Action- Aristotle argued that the plot should reveal
clearly ordered actions and incidents moving towards the plot’s resolution
Unity of Place-
A play’s action should occur in a single locale.