Aristotle's Poetics And Brecht's Theory Of Theatre

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Aristotle's Poetics and Brecht's Theory of Theatre

Introduction

The interest in arts and theater, traditionally called 'Performing Arts', connects with the Greek and Romans' era of open air theaters and an ambiance that created a dramatic view of lovely landscape and a tired seating arrangement. Everything is incorporated with the theme of the play to create the ultimate feel within the audience. A theatre fundamentally means telling a story, both in visually creative ways through characters, stage design, and in poetically subtle ways through direction.

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher w ho believed in the unchanging essences of logic and rational. Everything that exists around us has a form or structure that has the ability to shape and mould our belief. His work was significantly based on grounds of reality more than exceptions. Aristotle was not just a philosopher; he has contributed in the field of physics, poetry, rhetoric, politics, linguistics, zoology, and many other intellectual areas of study.

Bertolt Brecht was much of a critical writer who believed that theater should provoke the audience to rationalize the scenes being depicted by the characters of the play rather than fantasizing themselves as the person in the play. His foremost concern was to emphasize on the changing imaginative horizons of the audience who should understand the rational that the play is not 'Reality' instead a 'Depiction of Reality'. Brecht was amongst the Marxist; analyzing how people behave towards each other in a specific historical situation.

Aristotle's Poetics

In his historical work of dramatic theory, the 'Poetics', he analyzed the Athenian tragedy of the 5th Century. Over two thousand years ago, Aristotle established the theories and conventions of play writing and drama. His famous contribution of 'The Poetics' in the field of performing art outlines six key elements as a critical analysis of the Greek tragedy by the name 'Oedipus Rex' by Sophocles. The contemporary view is that Aristotle's generalizations about theatre are derived from the nature of the subject, not from a study of individual works. Based on the conviction, Poetics can be understood as logically from Aristotle's work in dramatic science. Aristotle Poetics present a revolutionary concept regarding the principles that surrounds the effectiveness of a play. From art literature perspective, it presents the element that are considered as a culmination of poetry and used as the authentic criterion for theatre. Aristotle identified the following elements through his analysis:

Thought/Theme/Idea

Aristotle had an approach of devising literature that is more formal rather than be morally didactic. This element constitutes the effect of each dialogue and action depicted by the character to contribute to the theme of the play. The theme, thought or idea aims to move the audience through staging either the character's feelings of anger, sorrow, and refutations, or reasoning.

Action/Plot

The plot acts as the heart of the play which portrays the flow of the play. Each section must be in sequence and clarity should be the writer's main focus. Vague and formless plot leave the audience confused to assess the connection between the various parts of ...
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