Poetic Enthusiasm and the Perils of Ethical Mimesis
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F44555601%3A13410%2F23%3A43897679" target="_blank" >RIV/44555601:13410/23:43897679 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/jj.5475447.11" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/jj.5475447.11</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/jj.5475447.11" target="_blank" >10.2307/jj.5475447.11</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Poetic Enthusiasm and the Perils of Ethical Mimesis
Original language description
The paper focuses on Plato's polemical interaction with the oral poetic tradition, targeting its methods and educational impact. The textual background is primarily Plato's Ion.The paper initially sets the issue in a cultural context still dominated by the system of Homeric paideia in Plato's time. Here, it emphasizes the practical-educational dimension of the Homeric epics and their socializing role, implemented through the all-pervasive phenomenon of poetic performances. Next, the paper analyses two interrelated aspects of Plato's criticism against the contemporary practice of transmitting and imprinting cultural values.First, it discusses Plato's objections against the methods of oral poetic communication. In this respect, the paper presents Plato's conception of poetic inspiration, set within a broader framework of poetic performance that assumes a multi-level relationship between Muse, poet, rhapsode, and listener. Plato here develops the notion of poetic enthusiasm and, at the same time, foreshadows poetic reflection based on the concept of poetic frenzy (furor poeticus). Simultaneously, the paper highlights the transformation in understanding poetic competence and expertise that the Platonic conception of enthusiasm implies. This transformation can be seen primarily in questioning poetry's status as techn?, which the Ion, like other passages in the Platonic corpus, grounds by emphasizing its non-rational and non-cognitive nature.Second, the paper elaborates on Plato's questioning of ethical mimesis. In this context, mimesis is not meant in the ontological-epistemological but the psychological-educational sense. The mimetic aspect of poetry is related to the intense emotional charge of the poetic performance, inviting the audience to identify with the experienced narrative and the attitudes of the depicted agents. However, the paradigmatic nature of poetic performance without intellectual grounding appears problematic in Plato's eyes, and Plato's philosophical critique against poetic practice manifests his competitive ambition in the sphere of socio-political and educational impact.
Czech name
—
Czech description
—
Classification
Type
C - Chapter in a specialist book
CEP classification
—
OECD FORD branch
60302 - Ethics (except ethics related to specific subfields)
Result continuities
Project
—
Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2023
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Book/collection name
Paideia and Performance
ISBN
978-1-942495-56-7
Number of pages of the result
18
Pages from-to
107-124
Number of pages of the book
239
Publisher name
Parnassos Press
Place of publication
Siracusa
UT code for WoS chapter
—