Aristotle, The Poetics

Texts | Outlines and Lectures | Articles and Essays | Reading Questions | Interpretations and applications of the Poetics

Texts

Amazon. The Poetics, , trans. Stephen Halliwell with Longinus, On the Sublime and Demetius, On Style. Loeb editions have Greek on left side, English of right.

Amazon. The Poetics, translated by Stephen Halliwell (who also did Loeb), publisher blurb (U. Chicago)

Supplementary texts relevant to the Poetics, compiled by Malcom Heath, from his Resources for the Poetics .

Outlines and Lectures

Lecture notes by Malcom Heath for his Resources for the Poetics .

Poetics lecture notes by Peter Gainsford.

More lecture notes, including a nice list of Greek terms ("often used by subsequent critics who like to make you feel guilty because you can't read Greek") by Elisa Kay Sparks (Clemson).

Articles and Essays

A comprehensive Poetics bibliography, compiled by Malcom Heath for his Resources for the Poetics .

Essay: Aristotle's Poetics and Katharsis by William Harris (Middlebury) -- "A radical approach to the old problem of Pity and Fear, based on Greek mathematical models"

Essay on the Poetics by Joe Sachs for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Reading Questions

Some reading questions on the Poetics, from "The Classical Origins of Western Culture" by Roger Dunkle.

Interpretations and applications of the Poetics

Aristotle and Shakespeare. Professor's notes.

Averroes' Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Poetics by Ibn Rushd Averroes, translated by Charles E. Butterworth.

"Hamlet Analyzed in Terms of Aristotle's Poetics" (free paper--I include a link because the more links there are to such resources the easier it is to ferret out cheaters).

"Paul Auster's Postmodernist Fiction: Deconstructing Aristotle's 'Poetics'" by Dragana Nikolic (masters thesis)

"Bergson's theory of comedy and the extent to which it concurs with Aristotle's and other theories" by Michael Burgess (a college essay).