What is the critical and philosophical term, derived from the Ancient Greek $\mu\iota\mu\epsilon\tilde\iota\sigma\theta\alpha\iota$, that means imitation, representation, or mimicry?
Mimesis.
According to Aristotle, mimesis is the perfection and imitation of what?
Nature.
In Aristotle’s view, art is not only imitation but also the use of mathematical ideas and symmetry in the search for the perfect and _____.
timeless
What did Aristotle identify as the ‘first formal cause’ in nature?
A blueprint or an immortal idea.
In Aristotle’s theory of four causes, what does the ‘material cause’ refer to?
What a thing is made out of.
What is the ‘third cause’ in Aristotle’s framework, involving the artist or creator?
The process and the agent.
What is the fourth cause in Aristotle’s philosophy, also known as ‘telos’?
The purpose and end of a thing.
In contrast to Plato, Aristotle stated that human beings are mimetic beings, feeling an urge to create art that does what?
Reflects and represents reality.
According to Aristotle, why is distance between the work of art and life important for tragedy?
Without distance, tragedy could not give rise to catharsis.
Aristotle believed that for a text to touch an audience, the audience must _____ with the characters and events.
identify
According to Aristotle, how is catharsis achieved in a tragedy?
By seeing something that is both recognizable and distant.
Why did Aristotle consider literature a more interesting means of learning than history?
Literature deals with what could or ought to have taken place, whereas history deals with specific, contingent facts.
How did Aristotle define drama in relation to action?
As an imitation of an action.
In Aristotle’s view, how do the characters in tragedy and comedy compare to the average human being?
Tragedy characters are better than average, while comedy characters are worse.
The literary technique that shows rather than tells through directly represented action is called _____.
mimesis
What is the term for the telling of a story by a narrator, where action is described indirectly?
Diegesis.
What is the term developed by Aristotle in his ‘Poetics’ for a character’s flaw or error?
Hamartia.
The word ‘hamartia’ is rooted in the Greek notion of ‘hamartanein’, which means what?
Missing the mark.
In ‘Nicomachean Ethics,’ how does Aristotle describe an injury committed in ignorance?
As a form of hamartia.
Isabel Hyde clarifies that Aristotle did not describe hamartia as an error of character, but as a what?
A moral mistake or ignorant error.
According to Isabel Hyde, what was the true hamartia of Oedipus?
His ignorance of his true parentage.
In some interpretations of Greek tragedy, a character’s hamartia is seen as a ‘forced error’ predestined by whom?
The gods.
In Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’, the true hamartia or error rests on which character?
Creon.
What specific error in judgment constitutes Creon’s hamartia in ‘Antigone’?
Ordering the burial of Polynices before releasing Antigone, leading to her death.
