Eguria

LET’s CONSIDER LONGINUS AND HIS THOUGHTs BY Eguriase S. M. Okaka Longinus was an unknown writer. Nobody knows how he died. He wrote an article which was later referred to as Longinus or sublime. His article was very lenghty that was why it was called Longinus as its implies. Plato wrote an article in his book named ‘The Republic’. Aristotle wrote ‘The Poetics’. Horace wrote a book titled ‘Arts Poetical’ and here is this notable write up by an unknown writer referred to as Longinus. Longinus was notable for writing about sublimity. Let’s consider his thoughts: Sublimity means a state of perfection or excellence. Sublimity refers to something that has attained the highest level of excellence. Longinus believes that every writer should hit the sublime e.g., Writers should write towards excellent at least once in a lifetime. The state of the sublime is very high. It is not what a writer can hit always. But every writer should aim at perfection or sublimity. The great writer William Sha...

LET’S CONSIDER HORACE’s THOUGHTs By Eguriase S. M. Okaka Horace died in 8th B.C. He was a poet. He lived after the death of Aristotle he was not Aristotle’s student. He only loved and studied his works. The critical thought of Horace on drama is that: Artists are not born but they are made. Let’s find out more from his thoughts. • To be a good student of art you must go to school, to improve in your talent in order to be good at what you are doing. • The ultimate purpose of drama is to give profit and delight. The profit is the moral lessons derived and the delight means the entertainment. • Horace was the first person to raise the issue of decorum (appropriateness, fitness, correctness of various purity of dramatic genre. Don’t mix tragedy with comedy. Horace says if you are writing tragedy let it be tragedy. Do not make a bad person look funny. Separate comedy from tragedy. • Avoid displaying violence on stage such actions should be reported or announced. • Write your plots from...

Eguriase S. M. Okaka’s Thoughts on the World and how he sees it as a stage. According to him: ‘The World is a Stage’ A stage is a raised platform where theatrical activities are performed. Every stage has a Performer, an Entrance and Exit. So this world is a stage, because it has a performer, an entrance and exit as the case is. When a man was born that is his entrance into the world. When he passes on that is his exit from the world. How he led his life from day one to his death amount to his performances in this world. Every man is an actor acting on stage and that stage is this world. We all have a time limit or duration of our activities in this world so is the actor on stage. No actor can perform any theatrical work without a stage. Let’s consider this world as such. The actor is not a spirit being but one that we can easily relates with in our community as the case may be. His address his well known to us. His family background and his psychological make up are not hidden fr...

LET’s CONSIDER ARITOTLE’s THOUGHTs on DRAMA BY EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA Aristotle was born in the city of Stagira in northern Greece during the classical period. His father Nicomachus, died when he was a child, and he was later brought up by a guardian. At 17 he joined Plato’s Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of 37 (c.347 BC). Aristotle was a student of Plato and after his death; he left Athens at the request of Philip II of Macedon to tutor his son Alexandra the great. Aristotle was an ancient Greek polymath, one of the greatest in his time like his tutor and mentor Plato. He wrote on many subjects including the arts. He was very much interested in the art. He wrote about drama, poems, play etc. he even describes what tragedy and comedy is. He was a great scholar in his time. Alexandra the great was one of the students of Aristotle. He was born in Stagira near Athens. Aristotle wrote greatly about the art. His greatest works have survived over 100 years called ‘T...

LET’S CONSIDER PLATO's REPUBLIC BY EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher, he lived about 500 AD. He was a student of a great philosopher named Socrates. Socrates was a great teacher who taught people with the use of questions. Philosophers are not specialized in one field but many fields of human endeavors. That was the breed of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and many others. Plato studied soothsaying including the art. He did not write anything about the art but wrote a book called “The Republic”. His book in page 10, he said he would never allow artist to be there because they are evil and not good for the human race. In other words, Plato felt that they are dangerous to the human existences. We shall find out why he said so from his writings. The city Plato called “The Republic is all about a place of perfection. It is also called the Utopia, he intends to create. Let us look at four reasons why he would not allow artist to be there. They include: • They a...