From our very first words, human beings imitate what they see, hear, and touch around them. Aristotle, in his Poetics, argues that this habit of imitation extends also to art, specifically the poetic genre of tragedy: stories are fundamentally “imitations of actions.” Literary critics have traditionally understood Aristotle’s theory to mean art represents the physical actions of life in words, images, or song.
This is, no doubt, true, and yet points us toward a further question: what does it mean for a human being, or in Aristotle’s terms, a rational animal, to perform “actions”? One clear point is that, for rational animals, thought, including reasoning as well as imagination, will be integral in our actions. In this reading group, we will look to clarify how our thought animates our actions. As we read the Poetics, we’ll look more closely at the emotional and intellectual dimensions of art, the poetic dimensions of human action, and what art, as the imitation of action, entails. In the end, we hope to understand our actions, alongside our own poetic aspirations, toward a beautiful life.
Led by Dr. Victor Saenz & James Prather
Email jprather@houstoninstitute.org, if interested.
