Argues for a reading of the Poetics in light of the Metaphysics.

Ontology and the Art of Tragedy is a sustained reflection on the principles and criteria from which to guide one's approach to Aristotle's Poetics. Its scope is twofold: historical and systematic. In its historical aspect it develops an approach to Aristotle's Poetics, which brings his distinctive philosophy of being to bear on the reception of this text. In its systematic aspect it relates Aristotle's theory of art to the perennial desiderata of any theory of art, and particularly to Kandinsky's.

Martha Husain's profile page

Martha Husain is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Brock University.

"Husain shows us how the Poetics fits into Aristotle's philosophy considered as a systematic whole. In the process she offers persuasive new solutions to problems that have long plagued students of this extraordinarily difficult book. This is a work that everyone interested in Aristotle or in the philosophy of art will have to read and digest." — C. D. C. Reeve, author of Substantial Knowledge: Aristotle's Metaphysics

"Original and well-argued, Husain's book is a direct challenge to the growing and influential socio-political interpretation of the significance of the art of tragedy." — John P. Anton, author of Categories and Experience: Essays on Aristotelian Themes