BACKGROUND TO POETICS
Aristotle’s “Poetics” can be considered the first attempt to defend poetry and performing art in the history of criticism. Aristotle wrote “Poetics” in response to Plato’s charges against poets and poetry. Plato wrote ” The Republic” in which he discusses how a state can be made an ideal one, poets and other artists must be banished (Put into exile). He was against poets and poetic activities because he believed that poets were to a large extent responsible for corrupting the tender mind of young generation. He opposed poets and poetry on two grounds which are known as the Moral Ground and The Philosophical Ground.
(1)The Moral Ground:
Poets presented Gods, Goddesses as great Protagonists as revengeful, lustfully doing conspiracy and with corrupt intentions. It passed a wrong message to the people in general. Plato believed that Poetry presents an improper model before the young generation to live life. So, he decided to banish poets from an ideal state.
(2)THE PHILOSOPHICAL GROUND:
The second Ground on which Plato discarded poets from an ideal state is known as Philosophical Ground. It refers in Plato’s theory of Imitation. Plato believed that idea of an object exists in the human mind and it cannot be presented in the real form perfectly. He explains it by giving the example of a carpenter’s bed. The idea of a bed is in the human mind and when carpenter prepares a bed on the bases of that idea, he just imitates the ideal bed which is in his mind.