Aristotle's "Poetics" has long been recognized as a seminal work of literary criticism. His analysis of tragic drama, epic poetry and stylistic devices such as metaphor, and his famous notion of the cathartic purging of the emotions, have defined a critical terminology for generations of later writers. In the "Ars Poetica" Horace defends the civilizing power of poetry and the fundamental importance of the principle decorum; while the anonymous author of the treatise "On the Sublime" (who was formerly erroneously thought to be Longinus) stresses the innate ability required to produce poetry of sublime grandeur.
Author Biography
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.
