Background
Else, Gerald Frank was born on July 1, 1908 in Redfield, South Dakota, United States. Son of Frank Marston and Minnie Marylouise (Beckman) Else.
Else, Gerald Frank was born on July 1, 1908 in Redfield, South Dakota, United States. Son of Frank Marston and Minnie Marylouise (Beckman) Else.
Student of University Nebraska, 1924-1927. Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude, Harvard, 1929, Master of Arts, 1932, Doctor of Philosophy, 1934. Doctor of Humane Letters, University South Dakot, 1975.
Doctor of Laws, University Nebraska, 1976.
He was professor of Greek and Latin at University of Michigan and University of Iowa. Else is substantially credited with the refinement of Aristotelian scholarship in aesthetics in the 20th century to expand the reading of catharsis alone to include the aesthetic triad of mimesis, hamartia, and catharsis as all essentially linked to each other. He taught at Harvard University until he joined the United States. Marine Corps as a Captain in 1943.
After completing his service, in 1945 he became chair of the University of Iowa Classics Department, and in 1954 went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he remained for the rest of his career.
He was chair of that department from -1968. During that time he founded the Center for Coordination of Ancient and Modern Studies, seeking to unite the humanities and to show how the study of the ancient world is relevant to modern literature and modern concerns.
Else"s magnum opus is titled, Aristotle"s Poetics: The Argument. lieutenant is a meticulous, comprehensive reading of Aristotle"s treatise that was published in.
Widely regarded in its time as a central work of literary theory, Else"s other important contribution is The Origin and Early Form of Greek Tragedy, which was published in.
In this work he argued against the view of tragedy as having arisen from religious ritual. Else wrote several other works on Greek literature and philosophy. Up to Else"s time, Aristotle"s concept of catharsis was almost exclusively associated with the reading of Jakob Bernays who defined it as the "therapeutic purgation of pity and fear." In a convincing manner, Else refined this definition to understanding literary catharsis as, "that moment of insight which arises out of the audience"s climactic intellectual, emotional, and spiritual enlightenment, which for Aristotle is both the essential pleasure and essential goal of mimetic art" Foreign Else, catharsis is an Aristotelian concept which must be read alongside the literary concepts of mimesis and hamartia as well.
These latter two concepts are usually paraphrased as "literary representation" and "intellectual error" in Else"s appraisal of Aristotle"s literary aesthetic theory.
Else retired in and died in 1982. A Festschrift in his honor (Ancient and Modern: Essays in Honor of Gerald F Else, ed J Doctorate"Arms and J West Eadie) was published in.
A volume of collected essays written by Else was edited by Peter Burian, an editor at the University of North Carolina Press, in 1987 fourteen of Else"s essays titled Plato and Aristotle on Poetry. The volume is notable for the inclusion of the biography on Else by Burian included in the prefatory section of the book, pp xi-xvi.
Gerald Else is commemorated at Michigan by an annual lecture in the humanities.
Member National Council on Humanities, 1966-1972, vice chairman, 1968-1971. Served as captain United States Marine Corps Reserve, 1943-1945. Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences.
Member American Philological Association (president 1964), Classical Association Middle West. and South. (president 1955-1956), Archaeological
Institute American, Heidelberg Academy Sciences (correspondent), Phi Beta Kappa.
Married Martha Post Wight, June 15, 1939, (deceased. Married second, Gladys Hart Burian, January 1, 1976. Children: Susan Else Wyman, Stephen (deceased 1974).