Mythos as Mode of the Presence of Form in Literature

Abstract

R. Zimmernamm wrote in his History of Aesthetics (1858), that »form is the principle of ancient art«, whereas M. Fuhrmann begins his interpretation of Aristotle's theory of literature with the statement: »The Aristotelian poetics is 'eine Gattungspoetik'«. The presupposition of this article, in which we shall try to reconcile these two disparate assumptions, is an understanding of the concept of mimesis as representation of form, the universal and ideal (morphe, katholou) in their beauty and sublimity (epieikeia, paradeigma). The universality of the literary art is mythos, which is »like the soul«, i.e. the formal and in such way the inner organising principle of a work of art. Through the theory of creativity as production and fashioning the concept of form gains a new meaning: the form of the poetical genres, treated in Poetics, is thus no longer the transcendent beauty as idea (Plato), but rather the disposition, the inner organisation and structure of the very works of art. The universality and validity of the poetical representation is established through the style of literary narrative. As the poetical mythos is a representation of human activity (praxis), which is an essential characteristic of human being, therefore the exposition of rules for the composition of story assumes a genuine athical dimension. Through the theory of mythos the Aristotelian philosophy of art becomes a theory of artistic fiction and illusion as mode of existence of the poetical truth.