29.9.08

Sarah Knoth--Phrase--Discovery

PHRASE:

“A Discovery is, as the very word implies, a change from ignorance to knowledge, and thus to either love or hate, in the personages marked for good or evil fortune” (237).

In Poetics, Aristotle asks his readers to take into consideration three kinds of poetry: comedy, tragedy, and epic, and with these examples he tries to integrate his opinion about mimesis. With any type of art, according to Aristotle, there is a certain kind of re-presentation of something; a new presentation of a work that is possibly in the need of examination. The imitation of said piece of work is then in route to be discovered. Aristotle seems to say that discovery is the reason for exploration into art; through art we try to find a deeper meaning, a window into humanity or at least the artist’s intentions. In Aristotle’s argument, mimesis and art are synonymous. And, it is discovery, that we can finally understand why the imitation of an event, of an emotion, of a story makes sense. Art is sometimes the filter in which we can discover truth.

No comments: