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Single Idea 20873

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 8. The Arts / b. Literature ]

Full Idea

Tragedies are nothing but the sufferings of people who are impressed by externals, performed in the right sort of meter.

Gist of Idea

Tragedies are versified sufferings of people impressed by externals

Source

Epictetus (The Discourses [c.56], 1.04.26)

Book Ref

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.196


A Reaction

The externals are things like honour, position and wealth. Wonderfully dismissive!


The 11 ideas with the same theme [philosophical aspects of literature]:

Without the surface decoration, poetry shows only appearances and nothing of what is real [Plato]
Poetry is more philosophic than history, as it concerns universals, not particulars [Aristotle]
Tragedies are versified sufferings of people impressed by externals [Epictetus]
Homer wrote to show that the most blessed men can be ruined by poor judgement [Epictetus]
For poets free choice is supreme [Schlegel,F]
Literature is the most important aspect of culture, because it teaches understanding of living [Murdoch]
The author function of any text is a plurality of selves [Foucault, by Gutting]
All great poetry is engaged in rivalry with mathematics [Badiou]
Storytelling is never neutral; some features of the world must be emphasised [Nussbaum]
Wallace Stevens is the greatest philosophical poet of the twentieth century in English [Critchley]
The hermeneutic circle is between the reader's self-understanding, and the world of the text [Zimmermann,J]