In this sustained interpretation Stephen Halliwell demonstrates that the Poetics, despite its laconic brevity, contains a coherent statement of mimetic art in general. He assesses this theory against the background of earlier Greek views on poetry and art, particularly Plato s; and he goes further than many previous authors in setting Aristotle 's ideas in the wider context of his philosophical system. The core of the book is an appraisal of Aristotle 's view of tragic drama, in which Professor Halliwell contends that at the heart of the Poetics lies a philosophical urge to work out a secularised understanding of Greek tragedy.