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The literary criticism of antiquity

The literary criticism of antiquity

The literary criticism of antiquity was inseparable from philosophy. Ancient Greek scholars have given the name of literary terms, formed a basic theoretical and literary concepts. They believed art the imitation of nature. Under the imitate understand creative reflection of reality. 

Significant contribution to the development of theoretical-literary thought Heraclitus (544-483 gg. to n. E.), Democritus (460-370 gg. to n. E.), Socrates (469-399 gg. to n. E.). Outstanding representatives of aesthetic thought from antiquity — Plato and Aristotle. Plato (427-347 PP. to n. E.) thought, that sensual things”shadow” ideas. Art, which copies the sensual things, there is shadow shadows and has no cognitive, no educational value. This concept is illustrated by Plato's parable of the cave: “People are in an underground shelter, such caves, which throughout its length stretches wide aperture. From an early age they have there on the legs and neck shackles, so they didn't budge, and I see they only, what's right in front of their eyes, for to turn heads through the shackles they can't. People are turned back to the light, that comes from the fire, which burns away in the sky, and between the fire and’prisoners passing through the upper road, enclosed by a low wall like the screen, which magicians put any utensils, holding him as, that it is visible above the wall, and they are carrying the statue, and all sorts of images of living beings, made of stone and wood… Don't you think, what, being in that position, people can see, your or someone else's, except for the shadows, which the fire throws on the wall in front of them caves?”. 

In’prisoners of the cave see only shadows, believing them to be real objects. Things, according to Plato, there are shadows of the reality of ideas. The painter only imitates copies, he leads the people astray. Artistic image — defective form of knowledge. Of all the arts Plato valued music, reproduces the world of ideas, of literary works — hymns to the gods and outstanding people, which poets inspired by God. Other literary works by relaxing the souls of men, for reveal human feelings. They cannot fully influence the education of citizens. 

Plato believed, what a wonderful nadchatram exists only in the world of ideas, it can be perceived only by the mind. The idea of the beautiful does not change.

An outstanding thinker of antiquity was the disciple of Plato Aristotle (384-322 gg. to n. E.). Art of ancient Greek literature he summarized in the works “Poetics”, “Rhetoric” and “Policy”. The main subject of art Aristotle believed human, and the purpose of art cleansing the human soul from evil. Unlike Plato, which proved, that creative process is subconscious, Aristotle considered him to be conscious, controlled. 

Comparing literature with history, Aristotle noted, what the historian writes about, what was really going on, and writer — and likely, “about, what could happen. So-poetry and philosophically deeper, and more serious than history, poetry says more about the General, and the story is about a separate”1. Literature depicts objects “such, what they are, or such, as they are, or, finally, such, what they should be”. Imitation is not slavish copying, it includes fiction, generalization.

Aristotle gave a description of literary genera and species. He was the first in the history of aesthetic thought revealed the specifics of the drama, which thought action, and not the story, “action is the soul of tragedy”. A tragedy is a play “embellished language…” an important and complete action, that has a certain amount”. The tragedy, according to Aristotle, should cause terror and regret. The plot of the tragedy must be confusing, it must be so, “so everyone was shivering and sympathetic ago, what's going on”. The tragedy reproduces the best people, than our contemporaries, and Comedy — the worst.

Comparing the drama to epic poetry, Aristotle noted, what epic poetry “such tragedies in the, that verse uses the word, and the tragedy is different from simple invariability of size and narrative presentation. Length of the represented events in time, tragedy has the capacity to accommodate its operation in a one-day cycle of the sun or less to make. And epic is not limited in time, is, it differs from tragedy, although first in the tragedies acted in the same way, as in epic works”. Epic poetry recreates a picture of life in hexameters, plots should be dramatic in composition and belong to one continuous and completed actions, which has a beginning, middle, and end. In the epic can be a lot of events, which occur simultaneously. In epic stories the poet tells of the events, how about something extraneous, how did Homer. 

An important place in “Poetics” takes category “character” is, what is the tendency of a person. The most important condition of nature Aristotle believed dignity, character worthy, “if this tendency worthy”. Conditions is the matching of character, credibility and consistency. In the characters, as in situations, always have to look for “the probability, so, the words and actions of a certain person arose from the necessity or the probability to itself and the sequence of events was determined by necessity or probability”.

Rating art, Aristotle takes into consideration the subject of the image, funds, which reality is recreated, and method image. Plastic arts — painting and sculpture depict colours and shapes, dance and rhythmic movements, music and singing — the melody and rhythm, literature — word and vrchovine sizes. Unlike Plato, he believed, that beautiful is a property of things and objects. Features beautiful: symmetry, proportionality, harmony. Beauty depends on the magnitude of things, easy or hard to inspect. To be beautiful, items must have a value, which can be seen at a single glance. So the plot in a literary work should be like this in time, which is easy to remember’bookmark. 

The works of Aristotle on art — the pinnacle of theoretical-literary thought of the ancient times. Some thoughts of a scientist outdated, but the majority retains its value. It “Poetics” became a model for the creation of many poetic in Western and Eastern Europe, including and in Ukraine in XVI—XVII centuries. The best — known are the works of th. Scaliger (France), In. Donat (Italy), I. Montana, I. Massena (Germany), Theophan Prokopovich and Mitrophan Dovgalevskogo (Ukraine), M. Lomonosov (Russia).

The influence of Aristotle has affected the works of the Roman poet and art theorist Horace (65-8 gg. to n. E.). The message “To Pconv” (“About the art of poetry”) Horace outlined some tips for aspiring authors about how addition works. The aim of poetry, he believed: “entertaining, to teach”. The image in the artwork, in the opinion of Horace, must be believable. Message “To Pconv” begins:

 

What, if the neck of the horse with a human head thought up 

Brush’detach painter, still haven’Yam colorful dress 

Those pieces everywhere tidy: top face 

Beautiful women, below — the semblance of a scaly fish, 

Who, looking at this creation, the laughter would burst out, friends? 

It, the character's actions should, in the opinion of Horace, to match the age and character. 

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