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The New Concept of Imagination

Imagination has been thought of as the most distinguishing

aspect that differentiates the artist from the common man and

even lifting him to the standard of the gods. It is that aspect

which pictures him as a highly imaginative man who has an

inventive mind and a complete mastery over his own created work

of art. In fact, the artist is imaginative only in the way he

rearranges and re-plots his artistic elements and devices. This

idea is thoroughly illustrated by Aristotle through focusing on the

Plot and on the Poetics of Probability .

The plot for Aristotle is “the life and soul of tragedy.” It hasto be there simply because there can be no tragedy without it.

That is, if a drama has all its artistic components with the plot

missing, it is going to be dispossessed of the very aspect which

makes it dramatic. In addition, this idea of plotting is about the

arrangement and the re-composition of events. That is why

Aristotle is completely against the idea that the artist is a maker

of verse. He emphasizes that the artist is rather a plot maker.

This means that the text is already familiar, and all that he doesis only rearranging the artistic elements found in the source he

resorts. The well-known story of Antony and Cleopatra, for

instance, is registered in the books of history to which

Shakespeare resorts in order to produce his Antony and 

Cleopatra . However, the plot in both stories is essentially

different. Certainly Shakespeare made use of the flexibility of

his artistic issues –mainly the plot- and the result is a totally

different tragedy which has its own world and its own credibility.Little wonder, the main feature that Shakespeare shares with all

the artists is that he never goes for the mysterious and the over

fictional. What he does is that he rearranges and re-plots the

events of the story so as to produce a work swarming with art.

Therefore, the idea of re-plotting, which is central in Aristotle’s

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criticism, is the very essence of art and is the only means with

which the artist can be described as imaginative.

The other important issue that Aristotle focuses on is his

Poetics of Probability . This means the combination and the

arrangement of manner, subject, style and all the other elements

that make up a work of art. To illustrate, different combinations

of these result in different kinds of work of art. That is, the

flexibility of these elements enables the artist to have a variety

of literary works, all of which are based on the same artistic

issues. Consequently, one can have both a tragedy and a comedy

simply by trying to orchestrate the same artistic elements

differently. The artist in this case can be described as a

composer who arranges the same notes in different ways so that

he produces different types of tunes. In other words, he is

skillful only in arranging his elements of art in many ways.

Whether a plot maker or a composer, the artist is not a super

imaginative man who creates and invents super things this quality

of imagination can be attributed to him only when it is taken to

mean re-plotting and rewriting.