MIMESIS

        “Mimesis” can be understood as one among the most fundamental and oldest term in literary theory. In different historical contexts the term mimesis is interpreted differently. According to Matthew Potolsky, “Mimesis takes on different guises in different historical contexts, masquerading under a variety of related terms and translations : emulation, mimicry, dissimulation, doubling, theatricality, realism, identification, correspondence, depiction, verisimilitude, resemblance” (Potolsky, 2006:1). Mimesis evokes a wide range of attitudes which no single translation can wholly accommodate. Potolsky adds, “Mimesis is always double, at once good and bad, natural and unnatural, necessary and dispensable” (2006, 2).

Mimesis is something very significant to Western school of thought. Considering the very concept of art in Western thought, it cannot be fully understood without the theory of mimesis.

Plato’s idea of Mimesis

Encoding of oral poetic and verbal works into written texts began in the Western tradition in sixth and fifth century BCE. Literacy spread very slowly and the educated class, the cultured men began to read and judge the literary works, thus beginning the saga of literary criticism. The main aim of the critics was to define good and bad literary works. Some of the questions raised by them were about the difference between fictional representation and real world, fictional truth, telling truth through fiction etc,. Plato, an Athenian philosopher, was the first among the foremost educated elite of ancient Greece to transform the then raised critical questions on literarture in a theoretical manner. Plato based himself on great Greek literary works like Homer. Plato claimed that such texts were representing a particular view of world. In such texts, there was an identification process going on defining individuals heroic or cowardly, wise or foolish etc. Thus literature was defining a value system. This was especially true regarding the Greek canonical poems. Plato wears the cloth of a philosopher and he despises the famous poets of his time as claiming to tell the world its truth, without an actual authority and thus telling lies. Those poems of virtual reality according to Plato, causes harmful effect on the morality and value system of the readers. Also the readers would enact these false ideas and values in their day to day life.

Mimesis was the very first idea put forward by Plato to prove his claims. Plato has used the term mimesis in several different ways in different contexts. This has made the translation of the term difficult. Usually the term mimesis was used to signify miming a person’s actions. And so it was mostly translated as imitation. But Plato gave the term a wide range of meanings. Plato took the term to higher philosophical levels. In its primary sense, mimesis becomes the representation of the actions happening in the real world. A writer or author is imitating or representing these actions using language.  The reality is not depicted in a literary text, but depicts how the events appear.

According to Plato, there is an ideal world, a divine sphere above and below the human realm. The hysical world we live in is just a copy of that ideal world. The physical world only resembles the ideal world, and so the things we see in this world are not really real. They are only appearances. The metaphysical realm is the only truth and the physical world of becoming only appears to be true; it distorts the truth. The ideal world is therefore the locus of ethic values. For Plato, mimesis is a representation of things in the physical world, not that of reality. The artists in the physical world know nothing about the truth of the metaphysical world. But great philosophers can have a glimpse of the ideal truth and so philosophers are not artists. Thus Plato proves that artists through their art works only distort the truth. They represent things not real and thereby things not good. “Literary mimesis, then, is a verbal image of things in the realm of appearance: an imitation of things that are not fully real. There is a vast gap, then, between mimesis and true reality.” (Waugh: 2009, 39)

 It was Plato who introduced the term mimesis into the world of lierary theory in his Republic which is believed to be probably written in 380 BCE. The term mimesis was already popular in the society of his time. But Plato could propose mimesis as something which became a fundamental concept n the Western theory of art and literature. Plato, in his Republic,Book 10 is redefining art as essentially mimetic.  For Plato, art is an illusion. It just imitates what is original or real. Art becomes a representation of something else, which is real. One can even claim that history of artistic and literary theory has its beginning from Plato’s theory of mimesis.

Plato despises poets because of two reasons. One is metaphysical and other is ethical. As art is an imperfect imitation of the real world which is already an imitation of the real world, art becomes an imitation of imitation; thrice removed from reality. So every art is untrue, which only helps in distorting truth. Looking at the ethical reason, Plato wanted all artistic works to follow the moral principles as study of morals is the basic. Imitative arts corrupt a man’s reason but influence his worldly passions. Plato recognizes a philosopher superior to a poet as a philosopher serves as the moral custodian of the people. Narrative form was more favourable for Plato than imitative form because imitative form represents evil directly. 

But in Book 5 of Republic Plato has a different approach towards art. He says that art contributes to the spiritual growth of people.

Aristotle’s idea of mimesis

Aristotle, addressed as a “perfect critic” by Eliot, owes his philosophical career to his great master Plato. Aristotle, but, in his treatises always showed a radical departure from the ideas out forward by Plato. His most influential work Poetics is considered the most valuable document in the history of Western criticism. In his Poetics Aristotle has raised some fundamental issues in criticism which are still debated on by critics. One among most discussed key concepts in Poetics is Mimesis. The concept of imitation of present day is mainly centered on Aristotle’s logic. There are essential differences between the concepts of Aristotelian mimesis and Platonic mimesis. Platonic view was that art was thrice removed from reality and so he banished poets from his Republic. Aristotle rejected these doctrines by Plato.

For Plato, imitation is just copying and so trivial where as it is creative and dynamic for Aristotle. He says that artist is a creator and his creations are imitations of human actions, human character, and human emotions. Aristotle uses the term ‘representation’ instead of copying for mimesis. Art is not a representation of what objects or actions are, but an artist represents how objects or actions ought to be. Hence art is a free and voluntary creation from human consciousness. Also this representation has a part to do in learning and knowledge acquisition. Even the artistic representation of some most disgustful thing would derive pleasure. Human beings naturally learn through the process of representation, even from their childhood age. Thus artistic representations help in learning also. Imitation leads us from particular to universe. Art is a source of insight into our lives. Aristotle gave a new dimension to the term imitation. Photographic reproduction of the events of life is not what is meant by mimesis. For Aristotle, poetic imitation is an imitation of inner human actions.

Aristotle’s new idea had a powerful impact on Western thinking. He opposes the trend of judging literature on ethical basis. For him literature is a matter of technique and form. Literature has its own rules and standards. Literature should be analyzed on the terms of aesthetics. Historical texts tell us what actually happens in the physical world. But a literary work is completely imaginary and resembles the real world. They deal not with facts but with fiction. Thus Aristotle introduces the notions of fiction and fictionality into the Western thinking for the first time. “Fictional literature offers its readers a unique and valuable experience, allowing its readers to explore alternative and possible lives from a position of aesthetic distance. For Aristotle, mimesis is a fictional representation that, when composed correctly, improves its readers, both intellectually and emotionally (rather than offering a false image of the world that harms its audience). A fictional mimesis, in short, cannot be judged as right or wrong: art and life occupy separate realms.” (Waugh: 2009, 41)

Plato had opposed the emotions aroused by the unreal and untruthful literary works in the audiences to reason. He argued that these emotions destabilize the morality of the people and the country. For Aristotle, these emotions serve to produce tragic mimesis. For Aristotle, a poet actually fails in his actions if he could not produce tragic mimesis in his readers. The arousal of tragic emotions is a natural and rational response to mimesis. Tragic mimesis results in a sense of identification and reflection on the part of the spectator. The result will be a release or refinement of emotions in the audience and it improves their mental state. These tragic emotions are a result of the plot structure which are effectively produced in the audience by surprising turns of events. If the plot structure is weak, the most horrifying event will seem arbitrary and will fail to produce the necessary emotions.

Aristotle identifies the twin emotions of pity and fear as the two fold audience reaction to the sight of a tragic suffering. According to Plato, these twin reactions were dangerous and unhealthy. Aristotle was against this theory of Plato. The sufferings undergone by the hero of the tragedy arouses a feeling of pity in the audience. Also a feeling of fear or terror is aroused in the audience when the get to know that these are happening to some character similar to theirs and they may also have to suffer such tragic experiences. The audience keeps this awareness in their minds after watching a tragedy. So tragic mimesis results in a moral and imaginative identification with the agent. The audience, when get out of the involvement with the tragedy, they feel a sence of release and serenity. This result is termed as Katharsis by Aristotle, a sort of purgation or purification effect.

Today, in the study of arts, the terms “mimesis”, “realism”, “naturalism” are recognized as terms for representating visual appearance of things. Mimesis has bee studied and theorized by many thinkers also as Philip Sydney, Colridgec Adam Smith, Erich Auerbach, Luce Irigaray, Derrida, Homi Bhabha etc,.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nagarajan,  M S. English Literary Criticism and Theory. An Introductory History: Hyderabad: Orient Black Swan Private Limited, 2008. Print

Potolsky, Matthew. Mimesis: Routledge: 2006. Print

Waugh, Patricia. Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide. New York: Oxford UP, 2006. Print

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