Literature I / Genre Theory
Practice question · Select all that apply

Which are true of the lyric–epic–dramatic triad?

Hints
  1. Three describe its actual history; one repeats the misattribution.
  2. Aristotle divides by means, objects and manner, not into these three kinds.
Show the answer
  • A. It is often misattributed to Aristotle
  • B. It was given a philosophical scaffolding of subjective, objective and synthesis
  • C. It was assembled by the German Romantics and Hegel rather than inherited from antiquity
Why

The triad feels ancient and is roughly two centuries old. Aristotle divides by means, objects and manner, and lyric is barely present in the Poetics at all. Knowing the date matters, because the triad carries Romantic assumptions about subjectivity that get read back into classical texts that never held them.

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