Classical Literary Criticism 1

Lecture One:
Classical Literary Criticism
I.

Literary Criticism

Literary

criticism

is

the

study,

discussion,

evaluation,

and

interpretation of literature.

It includes the classification by genre, analysis of structure, and

judgement of value.

It asks what literature is, what it does, and what it is worth.

In other words, literary criticism is the method used to interpret any

given work of literature.

The different schools of literary criticism provide us with lenses

which reveal important aspects of the literary work.

Literary criticism helps us to understand what is important about

the text: its structure, its context (social, economic, historical), what
is written, and how the text manipulates the reader.

It helps us to understand the relationship between authors,

readers, and texts.

The act of literary criticism ultimately enhances the enjoyment of

our reading of the literary work.

II. Classical Literary Criticism

The story of Western literary criticism begins in ancient Greece with

the great tragedies of Euripides, Aeschylus, and Sophocles, and the
comedies of Aristophanes.

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During this time, poets, philosophers, rhetoricians, grammarians,

and critics laid down many of the basic terms, concepts, and
questions that were to shape the future of literary criticism as it
evolved all the way through to our own century.

The first recorded instances of criticism go back to dramatic

festivals in ancient Athens.

particularly

striking

literary

critical

discussion

occurs

in

Aristophanes play The Frogs, first performed in 405 BC.

By

the

time

of

Plato

and

Aristotle,

poetry

had

achieved

considerable authority and status.

III. Plato (428ca. 347 BC)

Plato was the student of Socrates.

He was the Greek philosopher who laid the foundations of Western

philosophy.

It is stated that Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to

Plato.

Plato gave initial formulation to the most fundamental questions of

literary criticism.

Most of Platos philosophy is expounded in dialogue form .

Socrates is usually the main speaker.

A. Platos Accusations of Poetry:

Platos most systematic comments on poetry occur in two texts,

Ion and the Republic.

Platos accusations of poetry have been based on:
1. The falsity of the claims and representations of poetry

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regarding both gods and men;

In the Republic, Plato views poetry as a danger to his ideal
city

Plato introduces his theory of Forms.

According to Plato, the physical world is not independent or

real.

It is dependent upon another world, the realm of pure Forms

or ideas.

Thus, any object in the physical world are derived from the
ideal Forms.

For Plato, our physical world is but a shadowy reflection or

imitation (mimesis) of the unseen world.

Plato metaphorically expresses his theory of Forms in the

seventh book of the Republic.

He recounts the myth of the cave where people have lived

all their lives watching shadows of reality cast by a fire, with
their backs to the true light of the sun.

Plato makes it clear that the cave in which men are

imprisoned represents the physical world, and that the
journey toward the light is the souls ascension to the
world of Forms.

Thus, everything in our world, from objects to ideas, is but a

pale copy of the perfect, unchanging originals (Forms) of
these objects and ideas that dwell above in the unseen world.

When a poet describes a chair or writes a poem about love,

he is not imitating the Form of the chair or of love, but the

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earthly imitation of this ideal Chair/Love.

Poetry, therefore, because it imitates what is already an

imitation, is twice removed from reality (the Forms);

Thus, it is an unreliable source of truth and can only

lead astray those who study it.

2. Poetry appeals to the weaker, inferior side of our mind/soul

(or psyche).

Unlike philosophy or math, which we apprehend by way of our

rational powers, poetry, being fanciful, engages that part of
our psyche that is both illogical and irrational.

This irrational part of the soul is not only unreliable in matters

of truth but is disorderly unstable, inducing us to partake in
public displays of emotion.

3. Poetry has a corruptive effect on character.

In the Republic, Socrates stresses that poets must not

present the gods as deceitful since there is no lying poet
in God.

Poetry by its very nature is a falsifying rhetorical activity.

Thus, Plato concludes that only hymns to the gods and praises
of state heroes will be allowed; all other forms of poetry must
be censored.

4. Poetry is a kind of madness or contagion.

In Ion, Socrates cross-examines a rhapsode (a singer and

interpreter) called Ion on the nature of his art.

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Plato asserts that poets do not write nor rhapsodes speak by

art or skill, but by divine possession.

Socrates points out that the rhapsode, like the poet himself,
speaks not with his own voice which is merely a medium
through which a god speaks.

The Muse inspires the poet, who in turn passes on this

inspiration to the rhapsode, who produces an inspired
emotional effect on the audience.

Socrates likens this process to a magnet, which transmits its

attractive power to a series of iron rings, which in turn pass
on the attraction to other rings, suspended from the first set.

The Muse is the magnet, the poet is the first ring, the
rhapsode is the middle ring, and the audience the last one.

In this way, the poet conveys and interprets the utterances of

the gods, and the rhapsode interprets the poets.

Hence, the rhapsodes are interpreters of interpreters.

Poetry, according to Socrates, is irrational and inspired.

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B. A Response to Platos Accusations of Poetry:

1. Mimesis does not have to pull us farther away from truth.

Perhaps the poet does not imitate an imitation but captures in

the physical form of the poem the invisible essence of the
Forms.

2. Poetry does not arouse the irrational side of our psyche,

but it purges it.

Our emotions are an essential part of our psyche;

So, it is best to release those emotions in a controlled, public

setting;

Thus, poetry can serve a therapeutic function to cleanse us of

excess emotion.

3. If poets are indeed possessed, so the gods are trying to

speak to us.

The divine possession of poetry can be another way to rip away

the veil of ignorance and misperception in order to reveal truth.

Therefore,

the

poet

can

be

as

much

prophet

as

the

philosopher.
4. Plato is himself one of the greatest of poets.

His dialogues are themselves recognized as a unique literary

genre.

His dialogues are imaginative metaphors.

He presents his philosophical ideas metaphorically as in the

myth of the cave in Republic, and the allegory of the

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horseman in Phaedrus.

Platos

ideal

republic is itself a great poetic construct based on fancy and

imagination. It does not exist nor was it ever meant to. It is
merely a parable writ large: a way to uncover the nature of
justice.