Mimesis can mean
imitation, representation, or mimicry.
It can be the imitation or reproduction of another’s words in rhetoric,
mimicry between species in zoology, the imitation of symptoms in biology, and
most commonly the imitation of the real world in the arts. The word was originated between 1640 and 1650
and is a variant from the Ancient Greek verb, mimeisthai, meaning to copy.
Plato and Aristotle
both spoke of mimesis as the re-presentation of nature and theorized about the
use of mimesis in the arts. Plato
believed that imitation only leads us farther way from the truth and Aristotle
thought it brought us closer to it. In
The Republic: Book X, Plato told of Socrates’ metaphor of the three beds: one
exists as an idea made by god, one is made by the carpenter, in imitation of
god’s idea, and one is made by the artist in imitation of the carpenter’s
bed. Each time the bed is imitated, more
information about the bed is lost. The
artist, in Plato’s mind, could only touch on a small part of things as they
really are, never being able to recognize or portray the truth through
mimesis.
Aristotle
however, believed that humans are naturally mimetic beings, feeling the need to
create art that reflects and represents reality. He thought through the creation of art we can
be able to learn more about our world. After Plato and Aristotle, the meaning
of mimesis eventually shifted to a purely literary function in ancient Greek
society and has come to take on many other connotations since then.
Dionysius, in
the 1st century BCE, created Dionysian Imitato, which is a
significant literary method. It is a
technique of rhetoric to adapt and enrich the words of a previous author. Unlike Plato and Aristotle, who were concerned
with the imitation of nature, Dionysius was concerned with the imitation of people’s
words.
In more recent
times, mimesis has been used in scientific fields such as zoology and biology. In zoology, mimesis is the similarity of one
species to another, which protects one or both species. This similarity can be in appearance,
behavior, sound, and scent with the mimics found in similar places to their
models. The mimics will evolve to resemble
species that have undesirable qualities to their predator. In biology, mimesis is used in two
instances. It can mean the imitation of
symptoms of one organic disease by another or the imitation of symptoms caused
by hysteria.
Mimesis’ usage
has altered and grown throughout time. It
now has variety of uses and is present in many different fields of study from
the arts, to rhetoric, to biology and zoology.
Works
Cited
Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The
Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Princeton: Princeton UP,
1953. Print.
"Mimesis (art)." Encyclopedia
Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/383233/mimesis>.
"Mimesis Definition." Oxford English Dictionary.
N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/118640?redirectedFrom=mimesis>.
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