KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF CREATIVE ARTS, FILM AND MEDIA ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND FILM TECHNOLOGY

CTF 804: ADVANCED DRAMATIC THEORIES

LECTURER: Dr. J.K.S. Makokha
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF:
Compare and contrast Aristotelian and Platonic views of literature, using their
main ideas to provide the applicability of these views to the Theory of African
Drama.

NGIGI MUYA M66/37893/2016

BRIAN THUO M66/37895/2016

D.O. MURIUKI M66/10453/2008

YEAR OF STUDY: January-MAY 2017

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS

(THEATRE ARTS AND FILM TECHNOLOGY) OF KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

 INTRODUCTION

Plato and Aristotle are two towering figures that have shaped and influenced modern philosophy,

science and literary arts. Plato was a student of Socrates and who in turn become a mentor and

teacher to Aristotle circa the 4th century B.C. Their views and theories regarding the aesthetics of

literature have continued to spark debate among many postmodernist literary critics. Plato and

Aristotle have no doubt left an indelible mark in Classical literary studies in their two seminal

works: Plato’s “The Republic” (381 B.C) and Aristotle’s “Poetics” (350 B.C). An analysis of

these two works reveals an interesting philosophical dialectical relationship between teacher

(Plato) and student (Aristotle).

In the scope of critical literary studies, Plato and Aristotle, present arguments that question how

reality is represented by Artists and the effect that Art has on society. Plato and Aristotle critique

poetry and the effect it has on poets and their audiences and society. Plato from an idealistic

deductive viewpoint depicted in dialogue format, and Aristotle, from a realistic, practical and

inductive viewpoint in essay format. Both men disagree on the emotional effects poetry has on

individuals and on society, but both agree that poetry does stimulate great emotion which has a

lasting impact on individuals and society.

This paper will analyse and evaluate the similarities and differences between Aristotelian and

Platonic views of literature and interpret the applicability of these views to the Theory of African

Drama. This paper will also investigate how elements of Classical Greek literature has

influenced modern trends in African drama vis-à-vis how elements of traditional African drama

had influenced western Literature.

 1.0 BIOGRAPHY OF PLATO

Plato was born around 428 B.C. in Athens to a wealthy family during the turbulent times of the

Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. At an early age he was influenced by the works

of Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno and Pythagoras. However, it is Socrates who had the greatest

influence as a teacher and mentor to Plato, evident not only in many of the doctrines and arguments

we find in Plato's dialogues, but perhaps most obviously in Plato's choice of Socrates as the main

character in most of his works. Plato founded one of the earliest known organized schools in

Western Civilization called the “Academy” and died around 347 B.C.

1.1 PLATO’S PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS

Plato thought a lot about the natural world and how it works. He thought that everything had a

sort of “ideal form”, like the idea of a chair, and then an actual chair was a sort of poor imitation

of the ideal chair that exists only in your mind. Plato’s “Theory of Forms” is a tentative argument

in his philosophical views about representation of Art.

One of the ways Plato tried to explain his ideas was with the famous “Allegory of the Cave”. He

argues: suppose there is a cave and inside the cave there are some men chained up to a wall so

that they can only see the back wall of the cave and nothing else except shadows from outside

the cave. Wouldn't these prisoners come to think that the shadows were real and that was what

things really looked like? Suppose now that one of the men escaped and got out of the cave and

saw what real people looked like and real trees and grass. If he went back to the cave and told the

other men what he had seen, would they believe him or would they think he was crazy?
In his theory of Mimesis, Plato argues that all art is mimetic by nature; art is an imitation of life.

He believed that ‘idea’ is the ultimate reality. Art imitates idea and so it is imitation of reality. He

gives an example of a carpenter and a chair. The idea of “chair” first came in the mind of

carpenter. He gave physical shape to his idea out of wood and created a chair. The painter

imitated the chair of the carpenter in his picture of chair. Thus, painter’s chair is twice removed

from reality. Hence, Plato believed that art is twice removed from reality.

1.2 PLATO’S CRITIQUE ON ART

In Book II of “The Republic”, Plato begins a discussion of poetry which is concerned with gods

and heroes. He condemns much of this poetry as lies, “and still further because their lies are not

attractive” (Republic, II, p24). According to Plato, stories are not imitations of any reality but

are outright falsities, on the grounds that since gods and heroes are by definition better than men,

they cannot perform such atrocious acts as shown for example in the works of Homer and

Aeschylus. Such depictions provide justification for men to commit such acts themselves and

therefore these misrepresentations of gods and heroes are harmful to society.

Plato objected to poetry on three grounds:

 Plato’s objection to Poetry from an Educational point of view.

In “The Republic- Book II”, he condemns poetry as fostering evil habits and vices in
children.
 Plato’s objection to Poetry from a Philosophical point of view.
In “The Republic- Book X”, Plato claims that Poetry does not lead to, but drives us away
from the realization of the ultimate reality- the Truth. Furthermore, Plato argues that
Philosophy is better than poetry because Philosophy deals with idea and poetry is twice
removed from original idea. Plato also espouses the notion that “The imitator or maker of
the image knows nothing of true existence; he knows appearance only”.
  Plato’s objection to Poetry from a Moral point of view.
In “The Republic”, Plato states that the soul of man has higher principles of reason,
which is the essence of its being, as well as lower constituted of basic impulses and
emotions. Plato further argues:

“Then the imitative poet who aims at being popular is not by nature made, nor is his

art intended, to please or to affect the rational principle in the soul; but he will prefer

the passionate and fitful temper, which is easily limited. And therefore we shall be

right in refusing to admit him into a well-ordered state, because he awakens and

nourishes and strengthen the feelings and impairs the reason… Poetry feeds and

waters the passion instead of drying them up; she lets them rule, although they ought

to be controlled, if mankind are ever to increase in happiness and virtue.”

Plato believed that Art (in the form of poetry) was useless, potentially dangerous to a society,

psychologically destabilizing, pleases the senses and not the intellect, a misguided illusion of

reality and immoral. He viewed artists as being deceptive and “subtle thinkers who are beggars

afterall”.

2.0 BIOGRAPHY OF ARISTOTLE

Aristotle was born circa 384 B.C. in Stagira, a small seaport town on the northern coast of

Greece to a wealthy family. In Athens, Aristotle enrolled in Plato’s prestigious Academy and

proved an exemplary scholar. In 338 B.C., Aristotle went to Macedonia to start tutoring King

Phillip II’s son, Alexander the Great. Aristotle started his own school in Athens, called the

Lyceum where he spent most of the remainder of his life working as a teacher, researcher and

writer until his demise in 322 B.C.

 2.1 ARISTOTLE’S PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS

One of the main premises of Aristotle’s philosophy was his systematic concept of logic.

Aristotle’s objective was to come up with a universal process of reasoning that would allow man

to learn every conceivable thing about reality. The initial process involved describing objects

based on their characteristics, states of being and actions. Aristotle rejected Plato’s “Theory of

Forms”. Instead, he argued that forms are intrinsic to the objects and cannot exist apart from

them, and so must be studied in relation to them. From his perspective, logic and reasoning was

the chief instrument of scientific investigation.

Aristotle makes a distinction between the political and the aesthetic world. The reality in the two

is not the same. The reality called “history” – that is, a recording of real facts or happenings is

not what literature (poetry) claims to record. The world of literature constitutes of an alternate

aesthetic reality. Thus, Aristotle created this break or separation between philosophical and

aesthetic works. For example, he claims that art and philosophy deal with different kinds of

truth; philosophy deals with concrete and absolute truth, whereas art deals with aesthetic and

universal truth.

The difference between mimetic poetry and history is stated as ‘one (history) writes about what

has actually happened, while the other (poetry) deals with what might happen’. Therefore, the

function of poetry is not to portray what has happened but to portray what may have happened in

accord with the principle of probability (chance) and necessity. Since poetry deals with universal

truth and history considers only particular facts; poetry is more philosophical and deserves more

serious attention.
 2.2 ARISTOTLE’S CRITIQUE ON ART

Aristotle views on Art are more logical and pragmatic. According to him, poetry is an imitation

of an action. In “The Poetics” Aristotle examines poetry on its own terms; he pays much more

attention to such aspects as genres and specific metres than did Plato. Like Plato, however, he

considers all art as a form of mimesis (imitation). In “The Poetics” Chapter IV, Aristotle claims

that “man is very imitative and obtains his first knowledge by imitation, and then everybody

takes pleasure in imitation”. (Poetics, IV, p72). Aristotle refutes Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”

by arguing that the obvious solution is to walk out of the cave and experience what is casting

light and shadows directly, rather than relying solely on indirect or internal experiences.

Aristotle replied to the arguments made by his teacher Plato against Poetry in particular and art

in general. He replied to them one by one in defense of poetry by stating:

 The artist does not simply reflect the real in the manner of a mirror. Art is not a mere

slavish imitation of reality. Literature is not the photographic reproduction of life in all its

totality. It is the representation of selected events and characters necessary in a coherent

action for the realization of artist’s purpose.

 The function of art is to provide aesthetic delight, communicate experience, express

emotions and represent life. It should ever be confused with the function of ethics which

is simply to teach morality. If an artist succeeds in pleasing us in aesthetic sense, they are

a good artist.

 We cannot fairly maintain that music is bad because it does not paint, or that painting is

bad because it does not sing. Similarly, we cannot say that poetry is bad because it does

not teach philosophy of ethics.

Aristotle agrees with Plato in calling the poet an imitator and creative art, imitation. They imitate

one of the three objects; things as they were (or are), things as they are said (or thought) to be or

things as they ought to be. Therefore Art imitates what is past or present, what is commonly

believed and what is ideal. Aristotle believes that there is natural pleasure in imitation which is

an in-born instinct in men. It is this pleasure in imitation that enables the child to learn his

earliest lessons in speech and conduct from those around him, because there is a pleasure in

doing so.

Aristotle disagrees with Plato’s on the notion that Art is twice removed from reality and hence a

distortion of truth. Aristotle does not agree with Plato in function of poetry to make people

weaker and emotional/too sentimental. For him, catharsis is satisfying and humbles human

beings. So far as moral nature of poetry is concerned, Aristotle believed that the end of poetry is

to please; however, teaching may be given. Such pleasing is superior to the other pleasure

because it teaches civic morality. So all good literature gives pleasure, which is not divorced

from moral lessons. Hence, according to Aristotle good Art is not useless, it is natural,

educational and teaches truth.

2.2 ARISTOTLE’S VIEWS ON TRAGEDY

Aristotle considered tragedy to be the greatest form of poetic performance. He defined tragedy
as:

“Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain

magnitude; in the language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds

being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity

and fear effecting the proper purgation-catharsis of these and similar emotions”.
According to Aristotle, tragedy consisted of these elements:

 The plot is the soul of literary imitation. A good plot should have a beginning, middle and

 Which object of life is imitated determines the form of literature. If the life of a great

person is depicted it will make that work a Tragedy and if the life of ordinary people is

depicted it will make the work a comedy.

 What sort of medium is used to imitate life again determines the forms of different

arts. When words are used, how they are used and in what manner or metre they are used

further classifies a piece of literature in different categories as a tragedy, comedy or an

epic.

 In what manner the imitation of life is presented distinguishes the one form of literature

from another. For example, dramas are always presented in action while epics are always

in narration.

 The unity of action: a play should have one single plot or action to sustain the interest of

the spectators and it can also lead him to proper purgation.

 The unity of time: the action in a play should not exceed the single revolution of the sun.

 The unity of place: a play should cover a single physical space and should not attempt to

compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one place.

 Narrative plots are made complex by reversal (peripeteia) and recognition (anagnorisis).

Peripeteia is a sudden change (e.g. from good to bad) while anagnorisis is the

transformation from ignorance to knowledge in the context of the tragic hero.

 Best plots avoid deus ex machina solutions e.g. divine intervention.

  The Tragic Hero exhibits Hubris (defect in character e.g. pride), which leads to Hamartia

(tragic flaw), which precipitates Nemesis (retribution) and ends with the catastrophe (e.g.

death).

 A good tragedy evokes pity and fear on an audience (reader) which leads to the concept

of catharsis. A catharsis allows the flushing of emotions and can even result in the

clarification of moral, ethical and intellectual beliefs.

 A tragedy has six parts: Plot, Character, Diction, Thought (or theme), Melody and

Spectacle.

2.3 SIMILARITIES BETWEEN PLATO AND ARISTOTLE

Both Plato and Aristotle based their theories on four widely accepted beliefs of the time;

knowledge must be of what is real, the world experienced via the senses is what is real,

knowledge must be of what is fixed and unchanging, the world experienced via the senses is not

fixed and unchanging.

Aristotle agrees with Plato that the poet himself must be insane or else a genius to produce

proper work. Plato and Aristotle both use their definitions of ‘form’ to overcome their relative

problems with knowledge. Form for both philosophers is able to classify all things; chairs are

chairs because they reflect the form of a chair.

 3.0 PLATO, ARISTOTLE AND THEORY OF AFRICAN DRAMA

It is a disputable fact that drama or what we call theatre did not evolve from Hellenistic

civilization. Books written on the history of drama and theatre often credit ancient Greece as the

innovators of drama and literary criticism. Ruth Finnegan, in her book “Oral Literature in

Africa” (1970) has argued that "though some writers have very positively affirmed the existence

of 'native' African drama, it would perhaps be truer to say that in Africa, in contrast to Western

Europe and Asia, drama is not typically a wide spread or developed form".

Plato and Aristotle have no doubt left major contributions in the aesthetics of literary works.

Furthermore, Africa is recently emerging from the dark windfalls of Colonialization and

Imperialism, during which, African modes of education and entertainment were altogether

suppressed or punitively abolished. This hybridization of African culture resulted in literature

that was fused with Eurocentric values and presented to Africa as modern Literature which often

domiciled indigenous African performances and Art.

In general, Theatre can be defined as an activity where an actor takes a role through mime,

speech and action (e.g. dance) to convey a message to an audience. Traditional African drama

does not need a proscenium stage nor the intricacies of stage lighting to depict dramatic

performances. It is a fallacy to try and pidgin-hole traditional African drama with the concepts of

Classical, Elizabethan, Victorian or Bretch drama.

Traditional African drama preceded Plato and Aristotle’s principles of Theatre. African drama is

an integrated element of African civilizations and culture. African performances engages the
whole society. The storyteller or narrator is like a griot that holds the secrets of the community

by embedding moral and ethical values in their drama. Hence, as envisaged by Aristotle,

African drama has a didactic value which aims to educate members of the community.

African drama also exhibits esoteric and metaphysical elements which help to reinforce the

values and beliefs of African society. Just like the Dionysian festivals of Antiquity Greece,

Africans have from time immemorial reenacted dramatic performances that give tribute to deity.

The only difference between the two is that traditional African literature has not been

documented in written form due to the prevalence of oral narratology.

Plato’s views on “Mimesis”, offers no tangible nor pragmatic meaning to the ideals of African

drama. This is because African drama engages the audience to participate in the narrative where

important values, beliefs and ethics are conveyed to the society. However, African drama can

exists in a fruitful dialectical relationship with the principles of Aristotelian drama. For example,

writers like Ngugi wa Thiongo and Wole Soyinka, who have reverted to African forms of

dramatic performance, have retained elements of Hellenistic drama, for example, using

techniques likes Aristotle’s elements of Plot, Character, Theme, Melody and Spectacle.

African drama needs to exist in its own landscape free from the intrusions of Platonic and

Aristotelian views of drama. In fact, Classical and modern western drama can engage and learn

many elements of African drama. For example, I would argue against Aristotle, who sidelines

Music as an inferior element in a tragedy. African drama embellishes the use of music and dance

in delivering a dramatic performance full of colour, texture and meaning.

 CONCLUSION

Plato and Aristotle have no doubt left an indelible mark in Classical literary studies in their two

seminal works: Plato’s “The Republic” (381 B.C) and Aristotle’s “Poetics” (350 B.C). An

analysis of these two works reveals an interesting philosophical dialectical relationship between

teacher (Plato) and student (Aristotle). Aristotle agrees with Plato that the poet himself must be

insane or else a genius to produce proper work. Plato and Aristotle both use their definitions of

‘form’ to overcome their relative problems with knowledge. Plato considers mimesis in ethical

and political contexts; Aristotle uses mimesis as an aesthetic phenomenon.

Plato believed that Art (in the form of poetry) was useless, potentially dangerous to a society,

psychologically destabilizing, pleases the senses and not the intellect, a misguided illusion of

reality and immoral. Plato claims that poets should be banished from his utopian state called the

“Republic”. Aristotle believed good Art is not useless, it is natural, educational, teaches truth and

stimulates the political and psychological intellect of a society.

Traditional African drama preceded Plato and Aristotle’s principles of Theatre. African drama is

an integrated element of African civilizations and culture. African performances engages the

whole society. The storyteller or narrator is like a griot that holds the secrets of the community

by embedding moral and ethical values in their drama. Hence, as envisaged by Aristotle,

African drama has a didactic value which aims to educate members of the community. African

drama can adopt elements of Aristotelian tragedy (for example, the tragic hero) but must also

exist in its own arena free from western control and limitations. For example, Ngugi wa Thiongo

advocates for Africans to write in their lingua franca.

 REFERENCES

1. Aristotle. The Poetics. Translated by Allan H. Gilbert in Literary Criticism: Plato to Dryden.

Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1940.

2. Butcher, S. H. Aristotle’s Theory of Poetry and Fine Art. New York: Dover Publications,

1951.

3. Finnegan, Ruth. Oral Literature in Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1970.

4. Kraut, Richard (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Plato. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1992.

5. Plato. The Republic. (Books II,III,and X). Translated by Allan H. Gilbert in Literary

Criticism: Plato to Dryden. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1940.

6. Ross, W.D. Plato’s Theory of Ideas. London: Oxford University Press, 1951.

7. Santas, Gerasimos. The Form of the Good in Plato’s Republic. Philosophical Inquiry 2

(1980): 374-403.