Poetistica

Poetistica, or poetics, is the study of poetry and the principles of poetic craft. In Italian usage, poetistica denotes the theory and philosophy of poetry and poetic writing. It encompasses the analysis of form, genre, meter, diction, imagery, and the relationship between language and experience, as well as the effects poetry aims to produce in readers. It covers both the analysis of poetry and the broader theory of literary art.

Historically, poetistica has its origins in ancient Greece, where Aristotle’s Poetics laid foundations for the theory of drama and poetry. Key concepts include mimesis (imitation), plot (mythos), character (ethos), thought (dianoia), diction (lexis), melody (melos), and spectacle. Aristotle also discussed catharsis as a claimed emotional effect of tragedy. Over time, medieval and Renaissance theorists expanded poetics to other forms of narrative and rhetoric, while later periods reframed poetics as the study of how poetic effects are produced and perceived.

In the modern era, poetics evolved through formalist, structuralist, and narratological analyses that emphasize underlying systems, devices, and textual organization rather than prescriptive rules. Contemporary poetics incorporates cognitive, affective, and digital approaches, examining how readers engage with texts, how meaning is constructed across genres, and how new media reshape poetic form.

Today, poetics remains central to literary criticism and creative practice, offering methods for interpreting poetry and for shaping poetic work. It intersects with aesthetics, rhetoric, linguistics, and literary theory, and continues to adapt to changing cultural contexts and technologies.