Book description
The works collected in this volume have profoundly shaped the history
of criticism in the Western world: they created much of the terminology
still in use today and formulated enduring questions about the nature
and function of literature. In Ion, Plato examines the god-like power of
poets to evoke feelings such as pleasure or fear, yet he went on to
attack this manipulation of emotions and banished poets from his ideal
Republic. Aristotle defends the value of art in his Poetics, and his
analysis of tragedy has influenced generations of critics from the
Renaissance onwards. In the Art of Poetry, Horace promotes a style of
poetic craftsmanship rooted in wisdom, ethical insight and decorum,
while Longinus' On the Sublime explores the nature of inspiration in
poetry and prose.
Plato (c. 427-347BC) - philosopher whose thinking has shaped Western
intellectual tradition. Aristotle (384-322BC) - influential and
prolific author of the Ethics and the Politics. Horace (c. 65-8BC) - a
Latin lyric poet and satirist. Longinus - an unknown Greek author
writing mid 1AD
T. S. Dorsch was Professor of English at the University of Durham.
He died in 1991.
Penelope Murray is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Warwick.
