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رد: تجمع النقد الادبي .... !!
Lecture 3 - Greek thought influenced, in one way or another, every single literary form that developed in Europe and the West, but the differences between the two cultures remain significant.
- Plato’s most important contributions to criticism appear in his famous dialogue the Republic. Two main ideas appear in this dialogue that have had a lasting influence
- Plato makes the very important distinction between Mimesis and Diagesis, two concepts that remain very important to analyse literature even today
- Drama with characters is usually a mimesis; stories in the third person are usually a diegesis Mimesis-Diegesis (imitation-narration) - Plato was the first to explain that narration or story telling (in Arabic al-sard) can proceed by narration or by imitation Book X of the Republic - This is Plato’s famous decision in Book X of the Republic to ban poets and poetry from the city
- Western cultures have always claimed that their practice of literature and art are based on Greek antiquity Oral Society - “The Greek term for Art and its Latin equivalent (ars) do not specifically denote the “fine arts” in the modern sense, but were applied to all kinds of human activities which we would call crafts or sciences.”
- The Western institution of “Fine Arts” or “les Beaux Arts” or Aesthetics”, as a system that includes on the basis of common characteristics those human activities [painting, architecture, sculpture, music and poetry] and separates them from the crafts and the sciences, are all products of the mid eighteenth century: Arts is an 18th Century Invention - The basic notion that the five “major arts” [painting, sculpture, architecture, music and poetry]
- that Plato does not use the words “literature” or “art.” He uses the word “poetry.”
- They poet could be a tragedian like Sophocles or Euripides
- The poet that Plato describes in the Republic, as Eric Havelock shows, is a poet, a performer and an educator. The poetry that Plato talks about was main source of knowledge in the society.
- It is only in an oral society that poetry becomes the most principal source of knowledge and education
- Because poetry uses rhyme, meter and harmony and those make language easy to remember (like proverbs are easy to remember) Poetry Cripples the Mind >>> - Plato accuses the poetic experience of his time of conditioning the citizens to imitate and repeat, uncritically, the values of a tradition without grasping it.
- The citizens, Plato says, are trained to imitate passively the already poor imitations provided by the discourse of poetry.
- The poet is only good at song-making. His knowledge of the things he sings about like courage, honour, war, peace, government, education, etc., is superficial. He only knows enough about them to make his song.
- The poet produces only a poor copy of the things he sings about, and those who listen to him and believe him acquire a poor education.
- Poetry excites the senses and neutralizes the brain and the thinking faculties. It produces docile and passive imitators.
- Plato blames the traditional education given to the youth. It does not meet the standards of justice and virtue. Then he blames the parents and teachers as accomplices. If parents and tutors tell their children to be just, it is "for the sake of character and reputation, in the hope of obtaining for him who is reputed just some of those offices, marriages and the like"
- People are encourage to 'seem' just rather than 'be' just. And the authorities to whom people appeal for these views are, of course, the poets. Homer, Masaeus and Orpheus are all cited for illustration.
3 - It would be fine, he says, if people just laughed at these tales and stories, but the problem is that they take them seriously as a source of education and law.
- How are people’s minds going to be affected, he asks, by the poetic discourse to which they are exposed night and day, in private and in public, in weddings and funerals, in war and in peace?
- What is the impact especially on those who are young, “quick-witted, and, like bees on the wing, light on every flower?”
- How are they going to deal with this dubious educational material poured into their minds? They are “prone to draw conclusions, _________________________________________________ - Plato saw the poet as a big danger to his society. The Colors of Poetry: Rhythm, Harmony and Measures - Plato analyses two aspects of poetry to prove his point: style and content.
- Style: Plato observes that the charm of poetry and its power reside in its rhythm, harmony, and measures. These are what he calls the ‘colours’ of poetry.
Seeming Vs. Being Poetry creates a culture of superficiality. People want only to “seem” just rather than “be” just
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