Poetics
S. H. Butcher (1895)
Aristotle's surviving lectures on the theory of poetry, composed in the late 4th century BCE at the Lyceum. It is the earliest systematic work of literary criticism in the Western tradition, introducing concepts — plot, character, mimesis, catharsis, the unity of action — that have dominated discussion of tragedy and drama ever since. Only the first book, on tragedy and epic, survives; the book on comedy is lost.
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