Abstract
Roman Ingarden (1893–1970) was a prominent Polish philosopher, phenomenologist, and student of Edmund Husserl. A characteristic feature of his works was the almost complete absence of analyzes from the history of philosophy. That is why it is so surprising that right after the end of World War II, the first text analyzed when Ingarden started working at the Jagiellonian University was Aristotle’s “Poetics.” Ingarden published the results of his research in Polish in 1948 in “Kwartalnik Filozoficzny” and in the early 1960s his essay was translated and published in the renowned American magazine “The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism” as “A Marginal Commentary on Aristotle’s Poetics.” As far as I know today, this text does not arouse much interest among the many commentators and followers of Ingarden’s philosophy. Perhaps this state of affairs is justified: Ingarden’s own ideas are only repeated here, and their usefulness in the meaning of “Poetics” remains far from obvious. However, I think that this relative obscurity is worth considering now, because it shows how modern reason tries to control ancient concepts. The main purpose of this article is therefore to recon- struct the strategy by which philosophy tames the text of “Poetics,” especially its concepts such as catharsis and mimesis. The discovery and presentation of these treatments would not have been possible were it not for the mimetic theory of René Girad, which provides anthropological foundations for a critique of philosophical discourse.
Highlights
Ingarden begins his essay in an intriguing way: he first introduces the reader to the disputes about various concepts of the literary work, and tries to prove that the “Poetics” already occupies a specific position in this debate
One of the footnotes of the essay—which, was not fully translated by the American publisher—suggests that Ingarden unexpectedly discovered in Aristotle his own predecessor and decided to present his reflections on “Poetics.” There is no doubt that the search for “founding fathers” is in the philosophical discourse both common and equipped with specific tasks to fulfill, but even if that was the case, it is necessary to determine the consequences which this operation leads to
In the text of the Poetics we find various statements whose acceptance would be understandable and warranted only if we take a definite position with respect to these conceptions, and if, at the same time, we take cognizance of the general problems relating to the basic structure of the literary work. (Ingarden 1961, 167)
Summary
Ingarden begins his essay in an intriguing way: he first introduces the reader to the disputes about various concepts of the literary work, and tries to prove that the “Poetics” already occupies a specific position in this debate. One of the footnotes of the essay—which, was not fully translated by the American publisher—suggests that Ingarden unexpectedly discovered in Aristotle his own predecessor and decided to present his reflections on “Poetics.” There is no doubt that the search for “founding fathers” is in the philosophical discourse both common and equipped with specific tasks to fulfill, but even if that was the case, it is necessary to determine the consequences which this operation leads to Prima facie, this operation creates a neutral impression, i.e. it is devoid of any consequences. This operation creates a neutral impression, i.e. it is devoid of any consequences This is because it was carried out in a solid, yet careful manner without attempting to appropriate all of the categories of Aristotle, Ingarden declares that he will “only” indicate general assumptions that are implied by the specific theses of the ancient treatise: Neither a multistratous nor a multiphase concept of the literary work is consciously developed in Aristotle’s Poetics. In the text of the Poetics we find various statements whose acceptance would be understandable and warranted only if we take a definite position with respect to these conceptions, and if, at the same time, we take cognizance of the general problems relating to the basic structure of the literary work. (Ingarden 1961, 167)
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