THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERATURE AND CRITICISM IN THE ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL PERIODS
Keywords:
Plato, Aristotle, literary criticism, classical tradition, poetry, mimesis, catharsis, tragedy, sophists, rhetoricAbstract
The present study investigates the emergence of literary criticism in the context of ancient intellectual traditions, with a particular focus on the foundational roles of Plato and Aristotle in shaping classical theories of literature and artistic representation. It examines the conceptual distinction between the “literature of power” and the “literature of knowledge,” alongside key principles of classical criticism, including harmony, proportion, and formal unity. The article further analyzes Plato’s conception of poetry as a form of ethically and epistemologically problematic imitation of reality, as well as Aristotle’s theoretical framework, which legitimizes the aesthetic and cognitive significance of art through the notions of mimesis, catharsis, and tragic structure
