Poetics

This article is about the theory of literary forms and discourse. For the treatise by Aristotle, see Poetics (Aristotle). For other uses, see Poetics (disambiguation).
Leonardo Bruni's translation of Aristotle's Poetics

Poetics is the study or theory of poetry, specifically the study or theory of device, structure, form, type, and effect with regards to poetry,[1] though usage of the term can also refer to literature broadly.[2][3] Poetics is distinguished from hermeneutics by its focus on the synthesis of non-semantic elements in a text rather than its semantic interpretation.[4] Most literary criticism combines poetics and hermeneutics in a single analysis; however, one or the other may predominate given the text and the aims of the one doing the reading.

  1. ^ The New Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. 1993. p. 930. ISBN 0691021236.
  2. ^ Gérard Genette (2005), Essays In Aesthetics, Volume 4, p.14:

    My program then was named "Theory of Literary Forms" — a title that I supposed to be less ambiguous for minds a little distant from this specialty, if it is one, than its (for me) synonym Poetics.
  3. ^ "poetics". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
  4. ^ Culler, Jonathan (1997). Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.: