Literary Criticism

1. Welcome

2. Plato as a literary
critic
Paper: Literary Criticism

3. Plato
(428/427 or 424/423 BC428/427 or 348/347 BC)

4. Introduction
I. Plato was:
 an immensely influential ancient Greek philosopher
 a student of Socrates
 Founder of Academy in Athens where Aristotle studied
 Writer of philosophical dialogues which include Ion, Lysis,
Gorgias,Symposium, Phaedrus and Republic
 Plato’s theory of art and literature are mostly contained in Ion
and Republic
 Homer was a major influence on Plato

5. Historical Context
• Plato lived at a time of political decline
• Education was in a sorry state
• Courage, heroism, magnificence were the
highly prized virtues of that time
• Literature became immoral and corrupt
• Philosophers and orators were regarded
superior to poets and artists

6. 2. Imitation (Mimesis)
• Ideas or heavenly archetypes alone are real
• Earthly things are mere copies of them
• Eg: beauty we see here is only a copy of the
ideal beauty which exists in heavenly realm
• Earthly beauty is only an imitation of heavenly
beauty
• Thus imitation or mimesis is only a
representation and is not creative

7. Plato’s critical precepts
I. Poetic inspiration
• Poet is divinely inspired like the prophets
• Poetry is the result of divine inspiration
• It is not a craft that can be learned and practiced at will
• Poetry is not rational
• Poets write in a moment of frenzy, they do not often
understand what they are writing
• Therefore poetry cannot be relied upon
• Poets may express divine truths but they are beyond the
comprehension of ordinary human beings

8. • Eg: a chair: it is thrice removed from reality
• It exists first as idea
• Second as object of representation
• Third as object of representation in art

9. • Then he is pulled to the entrance of the cave
• His eyes are accustomed to dark and so day light is
hurting his eyes
• This world of daylight is the realm of Ideas
• Gradually he looks up and understands the ultimate
source of light and life
• This process is a metaphor of education and
enlightenment
• This enlightened person has the moral responsibility to
bring others also to the entrance of the cave and make
them enlightened

10. Cave image
• The physical world is in the form of a cave
• All the human beings are trapped inside it
from the beginning of life
• Human beings are stationery, they cannot
move their heads and can perceive only
shadows and sounds
• Then suddenly one of the humans is released
and is encouraged to travel towards the
entrance of the cave

11. Plato’s attack on poetry
• Plato attacks poetry on four grounds
1. Moral
2. Intellectual
3. Emotional
4. Utilitarian

12. 1. Moral
• Poets cater to popular tastes and produce
tales of man’s vices
• Poetry do not promote social morality
• Poets lie about gods and make them corrupt,
immoral and dishonest like human beings
• Drama is more harmful than poetry
• Judgement in dramatic matters is left to many
• Result is lawlessness

13. 3. Emotional
• Poetic truths are full of contradictions
• They lack moral restraints
• Poetry is not a substitute for knowledge based on
reason
• Forms of poetry like epic, tragedy and comedy
are imitative
• The readers identify themselves with the
fictitious characters in such forms of poetry
• This leads to the unhealthy weakening of human
characters

14. 2. Intellectual
• Poetry is thrice removed from reality
• Poets have no knowledge of truth
• They imitate only appearances and not truths

15. 4. Utilitarian
• Poetry serves no useful purpose because the
poet merely imitates the surface of things
without knowing how to make use of them

16. Plato’s achievements
• He introduced the concept of mimesis as an
essential characteristic of all art
• He was the first to state the classical ideals of
aesthetic beauty to be incorporated in all
artistic works

17. Thank You