MODULE 1: LITERARY CRITICISM

NAME: ANGELO B. LABAYO

GRADE AND SECTION: BSED III-B ENGLISH

SUBJECT: LITERARY CRITICISM

INSTRUCTOR: MR. JOHN MICHAEL MANJARES

LEARNING ACTIVITY 2:

Ancient Literary
Critics
• Plato is considered by most authorities to be

PLAT
the father of systematic literary criticism.

• When it comes to poetry, Plato considers it

as an imitation of reality. He explains that art
is an imitation of the truth.

• Plato thinks that poets, who do not adopt the

didactic purpose, impede this discovery path.

• Poets are moving away from the concept of

‘the truth’ by adding another chain to the
understanding of ‘imitation of the imitation’
in terms of the subjects they deal with.

• Plato asserts that poets write poems with

inspiration. The mind is replaced by
inspiration. He describes this situation as ‘’a
divorce from reason’’ (Habib 24).

• He considered philosophy to be better than

art because philosophy deals with the
questions of truth. He believed that most of
art must be banned because it is not important
for an ideal society.

• Poetry provides pleasure to sentiments and

emotions and takes us away from reason and
anything that is devoid of rationality takes
away from the ultimate truth. Plato was
staunchly against poetry; he found no
advantage of poetry but believed it to be
poisonous for an ideal state.
 • Aristotle’s Poetics has often been analyzed in

ARISTO
terms of its prescriptions for tragedy, its
distinctions of tragedy, epic, and other genres,
as well as its comments on plot and character.’’
(Habib 48)

• He does not deny that arts consist of mere

imitation. ‘’Like Plato, Aristotle holds that
poetry is essentially a mode of imitation.’’
(Habib 50)But he argues that these imitations
should be taken seriously.

• ‘’Aristotle classifies tragedy, epic and comedy

as subspecies of poetry, while classifying
poetry as a species of the genus of mimesis’’
(Goulimari 26)

• Aristotle focuses on the difference between

poets and historians in dealing with the past and
the future. ‘’Whereas the historian relates what
actually happened, the poet presents the
significant and essential core of events.’’
(Goulimari 28) Because of these works,
Aristotle plays a major role in the development
of literary criticism.

• Aristotle believed this imitative nature to be a

characteristic of every human being, and
suggested that from childhood humans have an
‘instinct’ to imitate; in this way, he claims an
imitation is an act of learning. He further adds
that every human finds pleasure in learning;
hence, imitation helps us learn and, also,
provides pleasure. 

HORACE
 • Rome's chief critic in literary criticism is known as Horace.
He brings a different perspective to Plato and Aristotle's
understanding of imitation and poetry.

• Horace demonstrates his commitment to the traditional by

claiming that ‘’poets must imitate other poets, particularly those
of the past and especially the Greeks’’ (Bressler 25) and asks
traditional topics to be written in the works.

• He tries to keep the traditional poetry, which he describes in

Art of Poetry as ‘’commonplace’’ and ‘’what's known’’ (Kline
240-243), not to get away from people. Art of Poetry, in short,
is a work that contains Horace's advice to poets about poetry
and drama.

• He focused more on the rhetorical features in Aristotle's

understanding of art in order to have readers to pass the
necessary feeling.
LONGINU
• Achieves the title of the first comparative
critic in the history of literature by
blending the literary works of various
nations.
• ‘’Longinus concentrates on single
elements of a text.’’ (Bressler 25) In
addition, he sees the concept of sublime in
his work titled On the Sublime as the most
important concept that forms the structure
of ‘the Soul’ and aims at reaching it.
• According to him, there are five basic
elements for ‘the Soul’ to reach the concept
of sublimity. The first two of these are
‘’great conceptions’’ and ‘’vehement and
inspired passion.’’ (Adams and Searle 94)
The remaining three contain rhetorical
features.
• Longinus has put emotional elements
before rhetoric in Aristotle's understanding
of art, in which Horace has focused on
rhetorical features.

PLOTINU
• Plotinus, the founder of
Neoplatonism, comes after Horace and
Longinus.
• Plotinus also brings new reviews on
Plato's non-physical world.
• Plotinus further elaborates Plato's
reviews by adding the concepts of
‘Here, There and Eternal’. In these
concepts, it is clearly seen that poetry
moves away from reality by at least
two ladder.