Such scholars fail to appreciate the achievements of robertellus, bernays, and lane cooper, who have shown us how much can be done with the extant text of the poetics in terms of uncovering a solid basis for a theory of comedy. Poetics treatise by aristotle britannica encyclopedia britannica. Preliminary discourse on tragedy, epic poetry, and comedy, as the chief forms of imitative poetry. The book builds on richard jankos aristotle on comedy 1984, which argued that the supposed abstract or epitome of poetics book two. Tractatus coislinianus is an ancient greek manuscript outlining a theory of comedy in the. The lost second book of aristotles poetics by walter watson. By the 9th century, the caroline script, which was very similar to the presentday form, was the principal form used in book making, before the advent of the printing press.
Of all the writings on theory and aestheticsancient, medieval, or modernthe most important is indisputably aristotles poetics, the first philosophical treatise to. Of all the writings on theory and aestheticsancient, medieval, or modernthe most important is indisputably aristotles poetics, the first philosophical treatise to propound a theory of literature. In 1839, the tractatus coislinianus, a summarised treatise on comedy, was published from a tenthcentury manuscript. In the poetics, aristotle writes that he will speak of comedybut there is no further mention of comedy. Finally, more than two millennia after it was first written, and after five hundred years of scrutiny, aristotles poetics is more complete than ever before. Here, at last, aristotle s lost second book is found again. Core terms edit mimesis or imitation, representation, or expression, given that, e. Aristotle, in his poetics, states that comedy originated in phallic songs and that. Aristotles poetics is the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory and first extant philosophical. The lost second book of aristotles poetics is a core plot element in umberto ecos bestseller novel, the name of the rose.
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