The works collected in this volume have profoundly shaped the history of criticism in the Western world: they created much of the terminology still in use today and formulated enduring questions about the nature and function of literature. In "Ion", Plato examines the god-like power of poets to evok[...]
Much has been written in recent years on Plato as a critic of literature, but no commentaries have appeared in English on the Ion, or the opening books of the Republic in which Plato launches his famous attack on poetry, since the early years of this century. This volume brings together these texts [...]