sidney’s defense of plato

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1、Sidney’sDefenseofPlato　　ThesourceofSidney’sTheDefenseofPoesyhasalwaysbeenahotspotforscholarsbecauseofhisdirectquotingfromAristotlewhileseeminglyinaccordancewithPlato.WhetherthesourceismorelikelytobeAristotleorPlatocanonlybedeterminedthroughadelveintotheunderlyingassumptionsofSidney’sdefini

2、tionandclassificationofimitation，alongwithacomparisonwiththoseofAristotleandPlato.　　BothSidney’sTheDefenseofPoesyandAristotle’sPoeticscanbeseenasthedefensesofpoetry.“Poesy，therefore，isanartofimitation，forsoAristotletermethitinthewordmimesis，thatistosay，arepresenting，counterfeitingorfigurin

3、gforth?Ctospeakmetaphorically，aspeakingpicture?Cwiththisend：toteachanddelight.”（Leitch，258）ThisishowSidneyrelatedhimselftoAristotleinhisdefinitionofPoetry.Indeed，his“teachanddelight”theorycanbetracedinAristotle’spropositionthat“man…learnshisfirstlessonsthroughrepresentation”andthat“everyon

4、edelightsinrepresentation”（Leitch，90），whichmeansbothofthemadmittheentertainingandteachingeffectofimitation.However，thephrase“delightfulteaching”inotherpassagesisreservedfordiscussionlater.　　WhenAristotlementionsimitation，hemeansinmostcasestheimitationof“theactionofmen”.Tragedy，accordingtoA

5、ristotle，isimitation“notofhumanbeingsbutofactionandlife.”（Leitch，93）Itisinactionthatallhappinessandunhappinesslayanditistheoriginandsouloftragedy，withoutwhichtherewouldbenotragedy.Thatiswhyheputplotinthefirstplaceforplotisaboutaction.However，Sidneylinksimitationmetaphoricallyto“aspeakingpi

6、cture”.Accordingtohim，imitationisthuslikeastillpicture，exceptthatitalsotalks.Forthepicture，onemaywanttothinkaboutlookingatitfirstbeforehearingit.ItisnothinglikeAristotle’simitationof“action”whichcanmakeusthinkabouttheplot，sequencesofincidentsandsoforth.SoSidney，whetherconsciouslyorunconsci

7、ously，missesthemostimportantpartofAristotle’sdefinitionofimitation.Giventhis，SidneydoesnotactuallymeanthesamethingasAristotleeventhoughtheyusethesameword.　　Besides，Aristotleinhisconceptofimitationdealswithmanythings，forexample，themediumofimitationlikesongsandd