History of Western Literary Theory

Author: Zhang Bingzhen, Zhang Anqi, Yang Huilin / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-06-01
Features: Secondly, Aristotle believed that art has a "purifying" effect, cultivating ethical virtues through the formation of habits. What are ethical virtues? In Aristotle's view, ethical virtues are qualities, which refer to the attitudes people hold toward actions and feelings. Excessive or overly weak responses are "bad attitudes," while only moderate responses are "good attitudes." Moderation means "to act at the right time, in the right circumstances, with the right relationships, for the right purpose, in the right way. This is to be in the middle, and this is the best, it belongs to virtue." @ In actions and feelings, there are excess, deficiency, and the mean. For example, excessive confidence becomes recklessness, while insufficient confidence appears timid, and only between these two is courage. Similarly, blushing at everything becomes bashfulness, while indifference to everything becomes shamelessness, and only between these two is modesty. In short, "excess and deficiency are both bad, while the mean is virtue. Virtue is the mean, and the mean is the highest good and the extreme beauty." @ Thus, the essence of ethical virtue in Aristotle's mind is the "Golden Mean." How are ethical virtues cultivated? Aristotle believed that ethical virtues are inherited through customs. "No ethical virtue is naturally generated. Whatever is natural cannot be changed by habit. Therefore, our virtues are neither generated by nature nor contrary to nature, but are naturally accepted and perfected through habit." @ This means that ethical virtues are not innate but are gradually cultivated through continuous practice and experience in real-life activities, gradually reaching perfection. Therefore, "lawgivers create good citizens through habit." And one of the functions of art is to "purify" people's emotions, making them neither too strong nor too weak, but moderate. Through multiple artistic practices, under the repeated stimulation and guidance of works, this moderate emotion becomes a good habit. Thus, in future actions and feelings, this good habit manifests as virtuous ethical qualities.
Third, Aristotle believed that art can provide "spiritual enjoyment," i.e., "pleasure" or "delight," allowing people to relax and rest after strenuous labor. Artistic imitation is a form of learning activity, and pleasure arises from this activity. In Book IV of Poetics, Aristotle said: "People always find pleasure in imitative works. The reason is that learning is not only the greatest pleasure for philosophers but also for ordinary people, though ordinary people enjoy it to a lesser extent. We enjoy looking at portraits because while viewing them, we are learning and inferring what each portrait represents, for example, 'This is so-and-so.' If we have not seen the original person, the pleasure comes not from the imitation itself but from the painting technique, colors, or other similar reasons." @ From this, it is clear that the pleasure derived from the learning activity of artistic imitation has both content-related and form-related reasons. In terms of content, it stems from the authenticity of the work. The lifelike images, due to their "realism," satisfy the desire for learning and produce aesthetic pleasure. In terms of form, it stems from the expressiveness of the work. Perfect techniques, due to their "skill," allow people to recognize formal beauty and gain artistic enjoyment. Artistic works have a purifying effect, and pleasure arises from this effect. In Book VIII of Politics, Aristotle said: "Some people are particularly susceptible to certain emotions and can, to varying degrees, be moved by music, purified, and thus feel a sense of relief and pleasure. Therefore, songs with a purifying effect can produce harmless pleasure." @ Thus, the purifying effect of artistic works can keep people's emotions moderate, not only cultivating virtuous moral qualities but also producing a sense of relief and pleasure. Therefore, "beauty is a good, and it produces pleasure precisely because it is good."
In summary, aesthetic pleasure comes from learning activities and the purifying effect, accompanying the entire process of forming intellectual and ethical virtues. As Aristotle said: "Without real-life activities, pleasure cannot be generated, and only pleasure can make all real-life activities perfect." And perfect real-life activities are happiness, "happiness is a life of pleasure." Therefore, "happiness should be accompanied by pleasure," and the two are closely linked and inseparable. Even in terms of providing this spiritual enjoyment of pleasure itself, it is one of the important functions of art. Entertainment and leisure are also in harmony with happiness and the highest good. Aristotle once said: "Leisure is for rest, and rest is naturally pleasant because it can eliminate the fatigue caused by hard work. Spiritual enjoyment is universally recognized as containing not only elements of beauty but also elements of pleasure, and happiness lies in the combination of these two factors."
In the theory of artistic functions, Aristotle inherited Plato's emphasis on social utility. The difference lies in: Plato focused on whether it was beneficial to maintaining the political rule of the slave-owning aristocracy, while Aristotle emphasized whether it was helpful in promoting the moral perfection of city-state citizens and achieving his social ideal of "republican politics." On the other hand, Aristotle criticized Plato's dismissal of aesthetic pleasure. Plato regarded all pleasure as "the inferior part of human nature" and believed that "pleasing pleasure" was "corrupting reason." In Laws, he even said: "Most people say that the benefit of music is to give our minds pleasure. This is an act of sacrilege and intolerable"; whereas Aristotle linked aesthetic pleasure to the greatest utility beneficial to the city-state, such as "happiness," and to the ultimate goal pursued by human life, such as "the highest good," completely vindicating the reputation of aesthetic pleasure and overturning the case.
### IV. On the Creation of Tragedy
Although Aristotle also discussed epic and comedy in Poetics, he focused primarily on tragedy. In Book VI, he proposed a complete definition of tragedy in the history of Western literary theory: "Tragedy is the imitation of an important, complete, and large-scale action, using embellished language and various ornaments in each part of the play. It is performed by actors rather than narrated, and it evokes pity and fear to purify these emotions." This definition specifies the nature, characteristics, and functions of tragedy from four aspects: the object of imitation, the medium, the method, and the purpose. At the same time, Aristotle also emphasized the discussion of the plot, characters, and functions of tragedy.
Regarding the plot of tragedy, Aristotle proposed the "unity of action." Aristotle believed that all tragedies must consist of six elements: plot, character, diction, intelligence, scene, and song. Among these elements, the most important is the plot, i.e., the arrangement of the story. Because the purpose of tragedy is not to imitate a certain character but to imitate a certain action, and character is revealed through action. "Without action, there is no tragedy, but without character, there is still tragedy," so "the plot is the goal of tragedy, and this goal is more important than anything else." Additionally, the main factors that make tragedy thrilling—"reversal" and "recognition"—are also elements of the plot. "Therefore, the plot is of primary importance, as if it were the soul of tragedy, followed by character." Thus, Aristotle advocated that drama should be centered on the plot, not on character.
Aristotle demanded that the plot of a play should be unified, complete, and of appropriate length. "Tragedy is the imitation of a complete, unified, and large-scale action." First, the plot must be unified. "Just as in other imitative arts, one imitation can only have one object. Since the plot is the imitation of an action, it must imitate a complete action, and the events must be arranged so tightly that if any part is changed or cut, the whole will be destroyed." In other words, the plot of a play is limited to imitating "one action," and all events must revolve around this action, with either probable or necessary connections between them, each event being an organic part of the whole. Second, the plot must be complete. "Completeness means having a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning refers to an event that does not necessarily follow another but naturally occurs after it. The end refers to an event that necessarily or mostly occurs after another and will not be followed by anything else. The middle refers to an event that connects the past and the future." In other words, the arrangement of the plot must reflect the inherent organic links of events and the inevitable laws of action development, never arbitrarily starting or ending but striving for order. Third, the plot must have an appropriate length. Very small things, observed for too short a time, will blur the impression; very large things, observed for too long, will fragment the impression. The plot of a play is no different—it should have a considerable scale while also being easy to remember. "The size of the scale should allow the plot to develop successively according to the laws of probability or necessity, from misfortune to fortune or from fortune to misfortune, and this is the appropriate length."
Aristotle believed that "beauty and the ugly, works of art and real things, differ in that the beautiful and the artistic combine scattered elements into a unified whole." As for how to combine them, he further pointed out, "beauty depends on scale and order." Here, it is worth noting that the "unity of action" proposed by Aristotle is not only concerned with the formal beauty of drama; it is both a requirement for the form of the work and a requirement for its content.