Thinking Activity 1 - Aristotle's Poetics

Welcome Readers !

Digital Skill, nowadays, has become the most essential part of our routine life. At the Department of English, MK Bhavnagar University, this skill is shaped very well with the endless encouragement by Dr. Dilip Barad. By making blog, we can make our entire workplace portable. Anywhere we go, we can just open some useful applications and sites to complete our tasks. By using Google Classroom, Barad sir has enabled himself as well as students to stay connected with each others all the time, and here is the thinking activity task, in which I've answered the questions which were uploaded by Dr. Dilip Barad in his Blog on Aristotle's Poetics.

Readers might be wondering that what is thinking activity ? Here you are! After completion of a unit or a topic of syllabus, students are given some questions and points to think upon. Whatever answers students find, they have to publish them on their respective blogs. By doing so, students not only understand the whole unit thoroughly but also start re-thinking the unit critically and raise their own questions regarding the unit. This kind of Student-Teacher interaction really helps in many ways.

Q1.  How far do you agree with Plato’s objection to freedom of expression and artistic liberty enjoyed by creative writers? Name the texts (novels, plays, poems, movies, TV soaps etc which can be rightfully objected and banned with reference to Plato’s objections)

Ans. Plato objects to freedom of expression and artistic liberty enjoyed by the creative writers, because they produce immoral and unethical work. According to Plato, a creative work should be produced morally and philosophically, rather than the intention of pleasure and enjoyment. By reading such highly moral and philosophical work, people can take some lessons and apply them in their lifestyle and up-bring their morality. There are many examples such as Marvel Cinematic Universe's Movies like Thor, Spiderman, Daredevil, Avengers, Hulk, etc. All the characters depicted in these movies are far from reality and morality. Though they are shown as good characters and they do every good to "save the world", but if we look with Plato's eyes, we must say that these characters are immoral and unethical. Children immediately copy and imitate these kind of unreal things. So I agree with the objections of Plato.

Q2.  With reference to the literary texts you have studied during B.A. programme, write brief note on the texts which followed Aristotelian literary tradition (i.e. his concept of tragedy, catharsis, tragic hero with hamartia etc.)

Ans. In B.A. program I studied a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in which Dr Henry Jekyll, a prominent doctor who wants to enjoy his hidden desires but he can't because of his wealthy and prestigious position. He wants to separate the wicked person from within and wants to enjoy all the vices he had been hiding. This wish and desire of the character, to detach and snatch out the wicked personality is Hamartia of the novel. As the result he suffers from his other cruel personality and decides to kill himself, this, we can consider as catharsis.

Q3.  With reference to the literary texts you have studied during B.A. programme, write brief note on the texts which did NOT follow Aristotelian literary tradition. (i.e. his concept of tragedy, catharsis, tragic hero with hamartia etc.)

Ans. There are many literary text which did not follow Aristotelian literary tradition. Examples like Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre, do not follow the rules.

Q4.  Have you studied any tragedies during B.A. programme? Who was/were the tragic protagonist/s in those tragedies? What was their ‘hamartia’?

Ans. All My Sons by Arthur Miller is a tragic play. Joe Keller is the tragic protagonists in it. His money-mindedness is the hamartia.

Q5. Did the ‘Plot’ of those tragedies follow necessary rules and regulations proposed by Aristotle? (Like chain of cause and effect, principle of probability and necessity, harmonious arrangement of incidents, complete, certain magnitude, unity of action etc)

Ans. Not all the tragic works follow necessary rules and regulations proposed by Aristotle. But there are few plays which has described above, follow all the rules such as unity of action. The examples are All My Sons, Othello, Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde.