Literary Criticism:Plato's point of view

Literary Criticism:Plato

What is the nature of literature or what is literary criticism?,these are the general and basic question which aroused when people heard or read about the art.Philosophy of life and art is the basic fundamental foundation developed by Greeks of 5th B.C which is served as basic theoretical and practical criticism.These were the 5th century Athenians who pondered upon the purpose of literature and the question of writing and reading itself.From that time a debate on function and nature of literature started.They started formal literary criticism of literature.Many critics developed their principles according to literary criticism.Plato is a critic about whom it is said that who laid the foundation of the central issues of both literature and philosophy,relation of society and people,ontology,epistemology,concept of beauty and morality etc.Many western philosophers contributed to criticism but about Plato,it is said by Alfred North Whitehead,a modern British philosopher:

"All of western philosophy is but a footnote to literature".

A contemporary of Plato,Aristophanes,a comic dramatist showed little bit practical criticism but Plato systematically begins the study of criticism and literary theory.Plato says that spirituality is reality.Every material thing is a shadowy replica of that thing which is present in its ideal form in the spiritual realm.He gives an example of a chair that if a chair exists in this material world then that chair is not real,this chair is the shadowy replica of that chair which is present in an ideal world and if there is no chair in that ideal world then a chair in this material world can not exist.

Before Plato and his Academy,Greeks developed their world through poetry and narratives to find or discover the truth.They made their own theories of goodness and others.

After the invention of Plato and his Academy,philosophical terms and abstract things got the position of narratives.

Plato wrote above the door of his school,

''Let no one enter here who is not a geometer''.

If material world is nothing but only a shadowy replica of real world then poets are not writing real things.They just copy the things which they see in this world as real and according to Plato,they are just creating copies of copies of real things.

Plato says that a poet's craft has no value because a copy is a copy and copy of copy is nothing and worthless.

Plato says that these people are imitators of reality and that who makes copy of anything can not be trusted.

Plato condemns all the poets to extreme level that he wants all the poets to be banished.

After realizing the needs of poets in the society,He says that only good poets and who are honorable in the state can be tolerated.By compiling literature and politics,a new debate started concerning the nature,value and worth of art and literature which is also a complex theory of literary criticism.

Summary of Gulliver's Travels

Summary of Gulliver's Travel is a great subject or outline for the students of English Literature.Jonathan Swift is the writer of Gulliver's Travels and this is very great name in English Literature. This piece of prose basically consists on four voyages of Gulliver which he completes and he does not know that to where he has to go.He looks different types of people through these voyages.He looks that at some place the people are very tall,on the other he looks that they are very small.The height basically shows according to my perspective that people are very cruel as well as very kind.Their attitude is different with different people.Their behavior is different and as a reader I think that their height shows their attitude and latitude to some extent.Now Gulliver tells through his voyages that there was a party system in England and people fight for minor issues.Big endians and little endians are the examples of their nature that they fight by deciding this that an agg should be broken from the big end or from the small end.He also shows that the political system was not good because all the political parties just want to get success and try to create disputes among different parties.He a tells in Gulliver's Travels that there were sects and people just started to fight with one another on the religious bases.Political parties just got the profit of the people through their rhetoric techniques.He also describes the foolish activities at that time which scientists adopted.Like while making a building,roof should built first and then its base etc.The main thing in part 4 in Gulliver's Travel is this that man's repute has been decreased to an extreme level and he has been linked to yahoos.Yahoos are very bad and cruel and that have not any reason and in this literature man has shown as worst thing to the society.So,it is a type of criticism on the society,its social and political systems.This piece of literature depicts the condition of even our today political scenario.The political parties just want their seats and they generate confrontation among the supporters and meat with one another after implementing the idea of take and give.Religious conflicts also show that sects are not creating love among others but disputes and people fight on these basis.Jonathan Swift wrote a master piece of literature 'Gulliver's Travels' in English Literature.

Oedipus Rex as a tragedy of fate or freewill

Oedipus Rex as a tragedy of fate or freewill is a question in the syllabus of English Literature.When we see the history then we find the tragedy of oedipus rex because history saves every thing on the papaper to forward it next to its readers.Oedipus is the name of a person and Rex is called to King in another word so Oedipus Rex is the name of a king who was very loyal to its countrymen and was very famous due to his justice with himself and with his people.Before discussing to the Oedipus Rex is a tragedy of fate or free will,it is very important for all but mostly for the students of English Literature and English Linguistics that what is fate and freewill?

The word 'Fate' comes from a Latin word 'Fatum' which means 'that which has been spoken'.

Greeks belived in 'Fatalism',which means that fate of a person is decided and it is unchangeable and man can not do anything against his fate and he even can not change his destiny.

Now Freewill is totally an opposite term to fate,fate bounds to the already written script for us and freewill is free from all these boundings and a man can do anything which he wants.Fate and Freewill are two different terms having conflicts that which one is greater.Either in Oedipus Rex,there are many example related to the powers of Oedipus and powers related to Fate.When Oedipus is born then an oracle tells to the king of corinth about his fate that Oedipus will kill his own father and will become a king of corinth and will marry to his own mother.This statement was full of worries for the king and queen.King decided to kill his son,he sent his son with shepherd but shepherd did not kill him but left him.Then Oedipus is saved and become a prince of another state.When he meets with an oracle in a party then oracle tells him that he will kill his father and will marry to his own mother.After hearing this he runs away to the corinth and on a place he kills the of corinth and solves a very difficult riddle of Sphinx.After this he becomes the king of corinth and unknowingly marries to his own mother.But he does not know that to whom he killed and with whom he married.After some day he realizes about a curse on corinth and by asking to the Tiresias  he comes to know that some one has committed a blunder.He starts to investigates and knows about the murder of the king of corinth,there he curses to the murderer and suggests punishment for that murderer.He abuses to the Tiresias and to many other characters due to his harshness by which he killed the king in anger.When he Comes to know that he is a murderer and incested with his mother then he gets punishment which he suggested for murderer and do holes in his eyes.This is the tragedy of Oedipus Rex,a famous king who always acted upon his words and never hated to his nation.He did many wrong faults due to the errors in his personality which is his hamartian element.His harshness and wrong decissions destroyed him but he always tried to escape from his fate and he tried to make his own destiny which is not possible.He forgot that he can not give deceive to his fate and he destroyed his fate.At the end of this drama,Chorus concludes this tragedy by warning people that do not be so proud and harsh and he says that only way to happiness is through humility and respect towards the gods.

           Men of Thebes, look upon Oedipus.

           This is the king who solved the famous riddle.

He says that this king was most powerful but he tried to deceive his fate and fate is fate.He destroyed his own life.

          Yet in the end,ruin swept over him

Chorus says that fate is fate and never try to forget this that fate is superior than freewill,otherwise no one will be able to save a man from destruction.

            

Anglo Saxon Period

Anglo-Saxon period is,you can say the foundation of English literature and English culture.It is said in different books about these people that these came to Britain in later part of 5th century A.D.These people are called invaders or interferer  who established their realms or kingdoms and became the founders of English literature or English culture.These people are who altered the sketch of England.Anglo Saxon period describes that these people destroyed Romans and eventually overcame their world and got the name of Barbarians.These barbarians endanger the Romans,they had primitive vigor and alien type of thought and due to this ability they overcame both the ideological and political structure of the empire and of Grecio-Romans thought.At that time the barbarians and the Christians were living together and the Roman empire had become Christianize.Yet the history of much of Europe in so called Dark Ages is the fusion of barbarians and Christians living together.These Anglo-Saxons peoples of Anglo Saxon period are called Teutonic people having Tacitus' name of Germania.When Bede writes the history of England then he says that they came from three powerful nations of Germans.

Nations in Anglo Saxon Period:

Saxones : Appearing from the low country of south of Denmark and east of Holland.

Angli : Angles lived in Jutland and its neighboring islands before coming to Britain.

Iutae : While the Jute whose origin is uncertain from the three but it is perhaps from the east of lower Rhine or most perhaps not cogent argument from Jutland.

Now after the thoroughly studies of Anglo Saxon Period it is clear that  the direction of the kingdoms of these three nations as i read this history from the book A Critical History of English Literature 1 by David Daiches 

Kingdoms In Anglo Saxon Period:

So he says that the Saxon kingdoms were in the south and southwest.Anglian kingdoms in east,midlands and north and Jutish kingdom in the southeast.

The cultural difference is only minor and they just had a little bit dialectical difference in their language.All of these people due to very minute difference say that all are from "Germania".The Romans were withdrawn from the England when they tried to start mutiny against these invaders and tried to hold their empire but celtic people were left to fend for themselves during these situations.Heroic poetry of Anglo-Saxon is that type of literature who give or shows us the contact with the Germanic origions of the invaders.An Englishman Geoffrey of Monmouth first elaborated the first Arthurian story but due to the removal of the literature of Anglo-French development ,we are just satisfied with the started history of English literature with the Anglo-Saxons.Anglo-Saxon language or old English language is the earlier stage language of its development.Old English is now disappeared but very few words are still found in the vocabulary of old or Anglo-Saxon literature.

Poetry In Anglo Saxon Period:

The poetry of Anglo Saxon period is in old English.Example of their poetry in modern English taken from the book "A Critical History Of English Literature" is below:

We have learned of Eormanric's

wolfish disposition;he held wide dominion

in the realm of the Goths.That was a cruel king.

many a man sat bound in sorrows,

anticipating woe,often wishing

that his kingdom were overcome.

This is the literal translation of the Anglo-Saxon's poetry in the modern English.Some 30 thousands line of Anglo-Saxon's poetry is in four manuscripts.

Beowulf poem is the first poem in the history of English literature and in Anglo Saxon period.

Genres Of Literature

Before describing the genres of literature,i want to give a little bit introduction about literature.Literature is a definition of made itself.

Literature:

To describe our thoughts,feelings and emotions in a good and sophisticated manner is called literature.Now to explain genres of literature,every thing has its types which describe the main branches of that tree.

Genres Of Literature:

Genre is that thing which basically defines the main particular term clearly.This term is a special art of literature.There are many types of genres of literature.many of the genres of literature will be defined below:

Fiction:

Fiction is that statement which shows itself as imaginative or self-created.many people like this type of genres of literature because they love imaginations and they just want to stay away from real things,real world and they just love imagination.This type of genres of literature is very essential in literature because literature is a combination of fiction and non-fiction work.Because if there is only non-fiction then that is called real and reality is history and if there is no imagination then that is not called literature.This genre of literature is very important genre for literature.
Now there are many genres of fiction of literature.

Poetry:

Poetry is a rhythmical and musical composition of words that are full of emotions,imaginations and inner deep thoughts.This genre of literature is you can say the arrangement of this universe.Poetry is what a sequence of words in a proper weight and manner.If we take an example of this universe then we can say that every thing is in a proper arrangement and changes itself after a fixed interval of time.days and night are changing themselves and playing with one another in an arranged and fixed time.Weathers come with great settings.Even the heartbeat is beating with proper pressure and an arranged sequence of time.

Drama:

Drama is that genre of literature which itself is in a prose or novel style and i becomes a drama when it is performed by some characters on the stage in front of an audience.Drama also arouses the emotions of audience as other genres of literature do like poetry,novel and fiction do.
There are two types of Dramas.

1:Tragedy                                                 2:Comedy

Aristotle gave the definitions of these two types of dramas in his book The Poetics.
He gives the definition taken from the site where the link is shown.

Definition of Tragedy: “Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its  Catharsis  of such emotions. . . . Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality—namely, Plot, Characters, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Melody.” (translation by S. H. Butcher; click on the context links to consult the full online text.

Comedy:

Comedy is that thing which ends happily.All the things happen very good and there is no tragedy in comedy.

Comic Tragedy:

This is that type of drama which is mixed with both tragedy and comedy as well.People engaged with this drama laugh and also feel pain for the characters and hero.

Myth:

Myth is that genre of literature which is filled just by the stories of fairies and gods and this is mostly related to Greek mythology.

Non-Fiction:

Non-fiction is that genre of literature which is based upon facts and figures.Historical facts are also in this genre of literature.

Biography:

This is about a person in fact without any doubt.All the things about a personality are clear and with certain backgrounds.

Essays:

All the material provided about some topics is real and based upon facts.historical events are also included in this type of genre of literature.
So these genres of literature are very few but are major to some extent.