CLASSICAL LITERARY CRITICISM

Aristotle's 'Poetics' has long been recognized as a seminal work of literary criticism. His analysis of tragic drama, epic poetry and stylistic devices such as metaphor, and his famous notion of the cathartic purging of the emotions, have defined a critical terminology for generations of later writers. In the 'Ars Poetica' Horace defends the civilizing power of poetry and the fundamental importance of the principle of decorum while the author of the treatise 'On the Sublime' (formerly thought to be Longinus) stresses the innate ability required to produce poetry of sublime grandeur.