“Plato”

Plato’s View of Poetry

Literary Criticism
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English Literature
“In order to understand Plato’s theory of
Poetry”
Utilitarian
Affairs in Athens
 Utilitarian
Educating the youth and forming
them into good citizens of his ideal
state
 Affairs in Athens
Political Decline
Flowering time of Greek art and
literature was over
Literature was largely immoral
Confusion was prevail in all spheres of
life
 Plato’s attack on poetry must be
judged with reference to its political
and social context
His own point of view
Attacks poetry and drama on
Moral, EMOTIONAL and
INTELLECTUAL Grounds
 On Moral Grounds
Narrate tales of man’s pleasant vices
Tell lies about gods
Dramatist appeal to the baser instinct
of men
 On Emotional Ground
Divinely Inspired
Full of obscurities and contradictions
Often the poets cannot themselves explain what they write
all imitative poetry as pernicious
Imitation = clownish
Soul into 3 parts
Rational, Spirited, Desirous or Appetitive
Pity and Grief should be restrained
 Intellectual ground
Poets have no knowledge of truth
Real world = Phenomenal world
Poetry is twice removed from reality
uses, makes, imitates
 The poets are to be honoured, but
they are to be banished from his ideal
state
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