Work · Ancient Greece
Aristotle's Poetics
c. 335 BCE
The earliest surviving Western treatise on drama, later turned into a rulebook and a starting point for theatre history.
The Poetics analyses tragedy and epic, discussing plot, character, and catharsis. A second book on comedy is believed to have been lost. The text had limited influence in medieval Western Europe and became central only after Renaissance scholars translated and commented on it, sometimes turning observations into rules.
Its prestige helped make Greek tragedy the presumed 'origin' of theatre in many Western curricula.