Of all the writings on theory and aesthetics - ancient, medieval, or modern - the most important is indisputably Aristotle's "Poetics", the first philosophical treatise to propound a theory of literature. In the "Poetics", Aristotle writes that he will speak of comedy - but there is no further mention of comedy. Aristotle writes also that he will address catharsis and an analysis of what is funny. But he does not actually address any of those ideas. The surviving "Poetics" is incomplete. Until today. Here, Walter Watson offers a new interpretation of the lost second book of Aristotle's "Poetics". Based on Richard Janko's philological reconstruction of the epitome, a summary first recovered in 1839 and hotly contested thereafter, Watson mounts a compelling philosophical argument that places the statements excerpted from the Aristotelian text in their true context. Watson renders lucid and complete explanations of Aristotle's ideas about catharsis and comedy, ideas that influenced not only Cicero's theory of the ridiculous, but also Freud's theory of jokes, humor, and the comic.
Finally, more than two millennia after it was first written, and after five hundred years of scrutiny, Aristotle's "Poetics" is more complete than ever before. Here, at last, Aristotle's lost second book is found again.
- ISBN10 0226875105
- ISBN13 9780226875101
- Publish Date 29 June 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint University of Chicago Press
- Format eBook
- Pages 317
- Language English