Imitation and Contemplation: From Philosophy to Literary Criticism

Abstract

This research seeks to understand the concept of imitation from the Greek environment to Islamic philosophy and the confused reception by Muslim philosophers and critics to such a term associated with its original environment as there are two literary genres unknown to the Arabs, namely tragedy and epic poetry.

The discrepancy between Greek poetic theory and the characteristics of Arabic poetry has been an impetus for Muslim philosophers to alter the term with another: Imagination, which is an authentic Islamic term though there is a psychological term. Therefore, what the study seeks to demonstrate is that both terms are intruders to Arab literary criticism, considering that the imitation in its Greek signification is limited to the study of tragic theater and epic poetry, as for the imagination it is a psychological term which renders it ineffective as compared to the aesthetic approach of Arabic poetry.