Mimesis

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Alfred D. White (Cardiff University)
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For over two millennia, from the sixth century BCE, the view prevailed that

mimesis

(from the Greek

mimo

for mime play) was the attempt by means of creative art to produce an imitation of a copy of objects which exist in an non-subjective reality: at its purest,

mimesis

was mimicry, close-copying, and the deception of the perceiver by a visual illusion, a

trompe l’oeil

or trickery of the eye. Such a view, taking the depiction to “resemble” its object, derived from Plato’s (425-347 BCE, q.v.) reductive metaphor of the painting as a mere mirror of reality, a copy of a world of objects which were, in themselves, merely copies of Ideas, and for that reason highly deceptive and banned from the ideal Republic (

Republic

, 3; 10). Plato's view built on earlier theory (for example,…

3960 words

Citation: White, Alfred D.. "Mimesis". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 August 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=727, accessed 19 March 2024.]

727 Mimesis 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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