Poetics

OUTLINE OF THE POETICS

I. THE VARIOUS KINDS OF POETRY

1. Introduction: poetry as a species of representation

Differences of medium

2. Differences of objects

3. Differences in mode

4. The origins of poetry and its early development

II. THE NATURE OF TRAGEDY

Basic elements of tragedy

The primacy of plot

7. Characteristics of a good plot

9. Universality and necessity

10. Types and elements of plot

11. Reversal and discovery

12. The sequence of scenes in tragedy

III. EXCELLENCE IN TRAGEDY

13. Guidelines for plot construction

14. Source of the tragic effect

15. Character in tragedy

16. Further thoughts on discovery

17. Advice to playwrights

18. Different kinds of tragedy

Final advice on plot construction

19. Style and intellectual content

20. Basic concepts of linguistics

21. The classification of nouns

22. Excellence in poetic style

23. The whole and its parts

24. Epic and tragedy compared

The excellence of Homer

25. How to respond to Homer’s critics

The inferiority of epic to tragedy