Fran O'Rourke



Fran O'Rourke is Associate Professor in the School of Philosophy, University College Dublin. He has published widely on Plato, Aristotle, Neoplatonism, Aquinas, and Heidegger; he is currently researching the influence of Aristotle and Aquinas on James Joyce. His pamphlet Allwisest Stagyrite. Joyce’s Quotations from Aristotle was published by the National Library of Ireland. As well as philosophical influences in Joyce, he is interested in the role of Irish song in his writings. In June 2004, accompanied by guitarist John Feeley, he participated in a concert of Joyce-related songs at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.




ABSTRACT
Joyce and Aristotle’s Poetics

Joyce was familiar from his school days with the Poetics. Aristotle begins that treatise by distinguishing between epic, drama (tragedy) and lyric poetry—a distinction central to the theory of literature expounded by Stephen in Portrait. Joyce has his own take on many elements of Aristotle’s theory—dramatic unities, art as imitation, the role of tragedy in exciting the emotions; Stephen questions Aristotle’s definition of pity and terror and provides his own diagnosis. I will consider some aspects of this treatise in Joyce’s work.