The Very Ends of Poesy
Seneca does not compose a poetics, but he regularly shows in his prose writings a wide knowledge of ancient poetic theory. This chapter examines Seneca’s own occasional comments on poetry and the various theories based upon them that scholars have advanced to explain his tragedies: Seneca as Stoic moralist, as aristocrat at play, or as Platonic “mad” poet. None of the theories that have been woven from Seneca’s occasional comments on poetry, however, provides the essential clue to the “end” of Senecan tragedy, for none of them focuses on tragedy in particular and on the critical traditions in which it was featured. The search for a Senecan poetics that might explain Senecan tragedy has failed essentially because it has not focused on what Seneca says about epistemology and psychology, the basis on which after Plato the traditional poetics of tragedy had been established.
Keywords: tragedy, Poetics, Stoic moralist, aristocrat, “mad” poet, epistemology, psychology
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .