Abstract

In his De tragoediae constitutione (1611) Heinsius rearranged the text of Aristotle's Poetics, and built on it a new general theory of drama, literature and speech. The new system was designed to render Christian exemplars and Christian theories of internalisation, pedagogy and motivation impossible to maintain, and thereby sidestep one of the most divisive issues in the intellectual debates of the Reformation. Irenicist secularisation is a major cause of Heinsius's impact on German, English and French literary theory. ☆ I would like to thank Hans Blom, Cesare Cuttica, Ioannis Evrigenis, Renaud Gagné, Marketa Klicova, Isaac Nakhimovsky, Richard Whatmore and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Many thanks to the Leverhulme Trust for their generous support.