Poetics, The

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 535 words | Copyright

Poetics, The, a fragment of a treatise by Aristotle which greatly influenced the theory of neo-classicism. It is the source of the principles elaborated by later critics as the unities, and it also introduced many much-discussed concepts related to the theory of tragedy, such as mimesis (imitation); catharsis (purification or purgation); peripeteia (reversal); and hamartia (either ‘tragic flaw’ or, more accurately, ‘error of judgement’). Hubris (overweening pride or confidence) was a form of hamartia.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Poetics, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Poetics, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-PoeticsThe.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Poetics, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-PoeticsThe.html

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