Apories de la doctrine classique
Aporias of the classical doctrine

Summary/Abstract: Classical literary theory was founded by Boileau, whose Art poétique Dryden translated, making use of a strange method: proper names were translated by proper names. So all literary genres were supposed to appear in the literature of every language, and to be represented by an emblematic poet. Still surviving in schools and colleges, classical theory has never made a choice between a systematic but limited construction, such as is to be seen in Aristoteles' Poetics, and a loose system grounded in a would-be synthetic model. This indetermination seems to be the cause of several dead ends theory.

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