Fairy stories Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

One hyperbolic way of reading Aristotle's Poetics is as sifting out all other forms of art and writing from a discussion which aims to understand tragedy (and then comedy which is the lost book). At the other extreme, and more plausible,... more

One hyperbolic way of reading Aristotle's Poetics is as sifting out all other forms of art and writing from a discussion which aims to understand tragedy (and then comedy which is the lost book). At the other extreme, and more plausible, is to read Poetics as a complete aesthetic theory in nuce; the nut in the shell being the dramatic arts of tragedy and comedy. The nut synecdochically includes and opens up to the entire tree of not only literary, but all mimetic arts, for the means of all the arts are included in tragedy, as are their (often less inclusive) objects. That Aristotle's text can be read in both directions--analytic separation and synecdochic synthesis--is probably a good indication that he is doing both things.
J.R.R. Tolkien's essay 'On Fairy-Stories' seems to be playing a similar double game. A first reading might lead one along the path of sorting fairy stories from all other forms of literature, as well as art; the singular distinctiveness of fairy stories kath auto is the realm to which it tends. This seems to be the manner of most Tolkienists. A second reading might tempt one to see how Faërie is being used as synecdochic nut for not only the tree of story--or all literature--but for all kinds of artistic making, so, an entire aesthetics is its tendence. How do these "aesthetics" with distinct centers agree, and not?