Love Song for the Life of the Mind: An Essay on the Purpose of Comedy
by Gene Fendt
Catholic University of America Press, 2007 eISBN: 978-0-8132-1604-1 | Cloth: 978-0-8132-1485-6 Library of Congress Classification B105.C456F46 2007 Dewey Decimal Classification 809.917
ABOUT THIS BOOK | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK Love Song for the Life of the Mind develops the view of comedy that, the author argues, would have been set out in Aristotle's missing second book of Poetics. As such it is both a philosophical and a historical argument about Aristotle; and the theory of comedy it elucidates is meant to be trans-historically and trans-culturally accurate.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
Preface
A Note on Key Words and References
Acknowledgements
Propylaia
Chapter One: The Problem of the Iphigenia and the Purposes of Tragedy
Backstage and the wings: Of Poetics and poetics
The problem of Aristotle's evaluation of Iphigenia
Some attempted solutions: The fallacy of Aristotelian formalism
Of strong and painful passions
Catharsis
Thaumaturgy: Hecuba
The problem and the play
Catharsis and the movement of emotion
Catharsis of the excessive and deficient
Catharsis and the virtuous
Mise en abyme: The Hecuba of Hamlet
Catharsis and intellectual clarification
Other concomitants of catharsis
Conclusions on some recent criticism of Hecuba
The case of the Iphigenia
Resolving the contradiction between Poetics 13 and 14
Chapter Two: The Purpose of Comedy
Formal, material, and efficient causes
Mise en abyme: The Socrates and Phaedrus of Phaedrus
The problem of comedy's final cause
Comic catharsis
The Example of a Falling Comedy: Hippias Major
What art is not for
Chapter Three: The Exemplary Comic Fiction:
Resolution, catharsis, and culture in As You Like It
Resolution and catharsis
Comic catharsis and culture
Emblematic appendix on the character of Audrey
The freedom of aesthetic judgment, or "much virtue in 'if'"
Chapter Four: A Love-Song for the Life of the Mind: Arcadia
Happiness, Politics, and Art
Eudaimonia and Politics: The errors of inclusivism
Art and Eudaimonia: The mimesis of joy
Arcadia: A love song for the life of the mind
Plot
Characters
The comedy as love song
Epilogue: "Still awake and drinking:" Symposium 223c,d
Bibliography
Index
Love Song for the Life of the Mind: An Essay on the Purpose of Comedy
by Gene Fendt
Catholic University of America Press, 2007 eISBN: 978-0-8132-1604-1 Cloth: 978-0-8132-1485-6
Love Song for the Life of the Mind develops the view of comedy that, the author argues, would have been set out in Aristotle's missing second book of Poetics. As such it is both a philosophical and a historical argument about Aristotle; and the theory of comedy it elucidates is meant to be trans-historically and trans-culturally accurate.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
Preface
A Note on Key Words and References
Acknowledgements
Propylaia
Chapter One: The Problem of the Iphigenia and the Purposes of Tragedy
Backstage and the wings: Of Poetics and poetics
The problem of Aristotle's evaluation of Iphigenia
Some attempted solutions: The fallacy of Aristotelian formalism
Of strong and painful passions
Catharsis
Thaumaturgy: Hecuba
The problem and the play
Catharsis and the movement of emotion
Catharsis of the excessive and deficient
Catharsis and the virtuous
Mise en abyme: The Hecuba of Hamlet
Catharsis and intellectual clarification
Other concomitants of catharsis
Conclusions on some recent criticism of Hecuba
The case of the Iphigenia
Resolving the contradiction between Poetics 13 and 14
Chapter Two: The Purpose of Comedy
Formal, material, and efficient causes
Mise en abyme: The Socrates and Phaedrus of Phaedrus
The problem of comedy's final cause
Comic catharsis
The Example of a Falling Comedy: Hippias Major
What art is not for
Chapter Three: The Exemplary Comic Fiction:
Resolution, catharsis, and culture in As You Like It
Resolution and catharsis
Comic catharsis and culture
Emblematic appendix on the character of Audrey
The freedom of aesthetic judgment, or "much virtue in 'if'"
Chapter Four: A Love-Song for the Life of the Mind: Arcadia
Happiness, Politics, and Art
Eudaimonia and Politics: The errors of inclusivism
Art and Eudaimonia: The mimesis of joy
Arcadia: A love song for the life of the mind
Plot
Characters
The comedy as love song
Epilogue: "Still awake and drinking:" Symposium 223c,d
Bibliography
Index