REMI MOHANDAS
LCL051517
MIMESIS
Mimesis is the imitation or
representations of aspects of the sensible world especially human action ,in
literature and art. Mimesis is derived
from the ancient Greek word “mimos”
which means to imitate. Mimesis describe the connection between artistic image
and reality. Art the imitation of the real. Mimesis is the oldest
literary theory. The word is used to illustrate the relationship between art
and life. It takes different meaning in different perspective in realism, depiction, , theatricality, identification. Its is difficult to have a
knowledge of western theories of artistic representation without having a
knowledge of what mimesis is.
Mimesis is double at once good or bad ,natural and
unnatural, indispensable and dispensable. mimesis connected
ideas about artistic
representation to more
general claims about human
social behavior. The
term was first
introduced into the literary
theory by the great
Greek philosopher Plato,
through his seminal
work Republic. To him “art
merely imitated something
real and is
only an illusion
which needs to be distinguished
from truth and
nature.” the twentieth-century French philosopher Jacques Derrida has
written, “the whole history of the interpretation of he arts of letters has
moved and been transformed within the diverse logical possibilities opened up
by the concept mimesis . The word mimesis originally referred o the physical
art of miming. Plato attacks
mimesis stating the negative
influence of artistic works on
youth and links
mimesis with extremes of human
emotions. His disciple Aristotle
on the other
hand defends mimesis
according to many
of the same anthropological and
psychological criteria that
Plato uses to discredit it
The classics scholar Stephen Hallowell
has noted western thoughts has historically been divided into two ideas about
art that comes from the combination of Plato and Aristotle. The two ideas are
,art reflects the world as t is and art as a self-contained heterocosm that
simulates a familiar world and copies our ways of knowing and understanding the
world. These ideas have different assumptions about the relationship between
art and human nature. Mimesis gives less or more depiction about what it is,
depends reception on the material world. The first idea of mimesis is difficult
to reveal ,for literary works which cannot be literally ‘mirror’ anything. The
second idea places debate in the history of mimesis. Aristotle who proposed the
idea that mimesis is effective if its resonate with basic cognitive
operations. Art appeals to reason, specifically
to our inherent sense of what is probable or necessary, and thus should be
comprehensible across cultures and historical periods. Aristotle’s suggest that
art simulate world, arguing that artwork appeal only to the conventional belief
about reality. Conventional are collective belief that overtime or by force of
habit gain the status of objective reality. The mimetic effects of the artwork
are produced by a proper ‘match’ between the work and the expectations of its
audience. . The conventionalist account makes mimesis radically dependent on
the social and historical context in which a work is produced and received.
Different
culture have different ways of relating reality and the historical periods are
dominated by different conventions. Conventionalist accounts of mimesis are
common in debates about the nature of artistic realism.
Plato
s observations
The ancient
Greek philosopher Plato provided the first and unquestionably the most
influential account of mimesis. The most important discussion about mimesis
comes in his dialogue Republic, a wide ranging work of political and ethical
theory written around 380. . Plato does not simply comment upon an existing
notion of mimesis in this dialogue but radically redefines art as essentially
mimetic, as a representation of something else. This notion is so fundamental
to the way we understand art that it is no exaggeration to claim that art
itself, as a distinct human product, is a Platonic invention. Art is the
imperfect of the real world that is a shadow, a pale reflection of the ideal
world. Before the introduction of theory of mimesis, Greek people
treated all the images and statues as real objects. Plato treats not only
poetry and art as imitation but also all the social phenomena and behaviors
like miming, emulation, pictures, mirrors, shadows, echoes, dreams and the
like. Thus he doesn’t consider art or poetry as a creative work or craft. He
equates mimesis with pleasure and emotion rather than truth and reality. Also
says that it is not at all a necessity but luxury. He tells that work of art is
unable to show the truth to the people since it is twice removed from Reality. So he considers the poets as someone who lead
the human beings away from reality. For him it is philosophy which is able to
show them the way to truth.
Aristotle
Aristotle initial
analysis of mimesis also embodies
the argument that art has a specific
nature of its own. Aristotle Poetics is the single most influential work of
literary criticism in the western tradition and a foundational text for
mimesis. Very little is known about the origin and composition of the
treatise, but it is most likely an incomplete or fragmentary compilation of
lecture notes on tragic drama and related subjects, written sometime between
360 and 320 BCE, and probably addressed to and later compiled by students at
Aristotle’s school, the Lyceum, in Athens. . Aristotle’s chief subject is Greek
tragedy, but his account of this form engages far-reaching questions about the
nature of mimesis that powerfully revise Plato’s theories.
Aristotle’s
view about mimesis is been understood , What seem to be superficial assertions
about narrative form or audience response are guided by sophisticated ideas
about mimesis that, in many cases, have yet to be fully assimilated into
contemporary popular discussions of art and literature. Aristotle talks about
poetry , a kind of mimesis which uses language rhyme and melody. He different
the kind of poetry of representation and names it composition of epic and the
music. It is often said that Aristotle’s account of
mimesis in the Poetics is a critical response to Plato’s exile of the
poets in the Republic, the relationship between the two philosophers is
somewhat more complicated, and remains a matter of scholarly debate. Plato was
Aristotle’s teacher, and although he is never named in the treatise, his
presence is unmistakable. Aristotle borrows a number of formulations from
Plato, and challenges his teacher’s claims about the nature and effects of
mimesis, often in terms that seem directed against specific argument Socrates
makes in the Republic.
Plato
contrasts the representational arts with other forms of human inquiry, such as
science and history, that are
conventionally associated with truth and reality. His defence of mimesis also
turns on a fundamentally Platonic concern: reason. Aristotle counters Plato’s
assertion that mimesis is opposed to reason, and argues instead that tragedy
offers quasi-philosophical insights into human actions. Mimesis for Aristotle
is a real thing, but its definition still relies like all the other theories
setup by Plato. Aristotle offers the most persuasive response to Plato’s
critique of mimesis. The history of
Western literary criticism is a repetition in different terms of the
fundamental claims about mimesis in Plato and Aristotle. For Plato mimesis is a
mirror of something else and Aristotle define mimesis as an craft with its own
internal aims.
Aristotle
revise the theory of mimesis introduced by Plato, and he considers art works as
a subject of study like the group of study, science and philosophy because these
also does the same search for truth and reality. Aristotle disagree
with Plato sometimes that for him the physical world is not just the copy but
it is to adapt it. According to Aristotle's reception of the
mimetic theory, imitation is needed to complete this incomplete physical world
people live in. But imitation, as he sees it, is rather a complex creation, a
skill that needs to go hand-in-hand with talent and imaginative power.
John Dryden supports the views of Aristotle
because he considers poetry as the imitation and the poet as the imitators.
John Dryden
John Dryden was the greatest English poet
of the seventeenth century. After William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson,
he was the greatest playwright. And he has no peer as a writer of prose,
especially literary criticism, and as a translator. An explicit account of art is given in
his noteworthy work “an Essay on Dramatic Poesy”. He has a strong agreement
with the view of Aristotle that poetry is an imitation of life and reflects
nature clearly. Dryden's ultimate belief in literature being a mimetic art is
the most clearly expressed in his famous definitions of the play “a just and
lively image of human nature , representing its passions and humors , and the
change of fortune to which its subject ; for the delight and instruction of
mankind.”
Longinus
The third member of the ‘Classical Triumvirate of criticism’
besides Aristotle and Horace, is Longinus. In the domain of Greek thought, he
is second only to Aristotle, ‘the master of them that know’ in the words of
Dante. The emphasis of Longinus is on the literature of powers . Longinus’ concept
of imitation can be understood
in relation to the theory
of sublimity and also
as a spiritual
interaction with the
ancient great minds, which
involves the subjectivity
of the writer
himself. The three stages first the passive reception of sublimity ,
second is the internalization of sublimity and the third active creation of
sublimity of ones own.
The perception
of literary imitation
of Longinus is
closely associated with
this theory of
sublime. The phraseology such
as “divine vapors”, “afflatus”,
“effluence” echoes the Plato’s
ideas, but Longinus deviates from
it by putting
emphasis on the
subjectivity of imitative
poet, as opposed
to Plato’s view
that the poet
is only a
mouthpiece of God. His theory
of sublimity later
inspired
Ludovico Castelvetro
Castelvetro was an important figure in the development of neo-classaism especially in drama It was his reading of Aristotle that led to a widespread adoption of a tight version
of the three unities, as a dramatic standard. His Poetica d'Aristotele vulgarizzata e
sposita . His Giunta, a commentary on the prose della volgar lingai by Bembo is one of the earlier texts on Italian grammar, and linguistics in general; his contemporaries objected to him that
his theories were a little too philosophical for their time.
He agrees with the view of Aristotle that poetry is an
imitation and poet is an imitator. He also agrees that imitation is natural for
human beings and is meant only for deriving pleasureertain studies
in various fields
of humanities.
Mimesis as a culture practice.
The theory of mimesis in Plato and
Aristotle is a dominant relation between human behavior and artistic representation.
The imitation of role models , the imagery of theatres acting and the problems
of realism. The imitation of role model
concern the relationship between past and the present and this defines
mimesis as an historical phenomenon. Realism
is the concern about the relationship between work and world and reproduction of
nature. In addition to imitating of nature and human action the poets also
keenly tried to imitate the artistic conventions that made authoritative.
“In An Essay on Criticism”
written by Alexander Pope he gives an influences summary of the mimesis. Pope’s
most important rule for the poet is to follow nature. The critical and creative
aspect of imitation is that it makes the original an original. Imitation is the
effective origin of tradition itself, the generic imitation is the epic, it
takes different forms in Roman and the Renaissances , literature, translation, periodic
overturning f classical idea. As Thomas Greene writes, moreover, ‘the process
called imitation
was not only a technique or a
habit; it was also a field of ambivalence, drawing together manifold, tangled, sometimes
antithetical attitudes, hopes, pieties, and reluctances within a concrete locus’.
The tradition of imitation expects
what the literary theorist have intertexuality, the concept that culture
product are the part of narrative and images that are common.
If mimesis originated in Greece
it gained its most enduring form in the pervasive Roman practice.
Horace’s
Horace’s outset of mimesis is
different from that
of Plato and Aristotle.
He shifts the
object of imitation from nature
to the ancient
Greeks such as Homer and
other Greek tragedians.
He makes himself clear
on the relationship
between following
the ancient tradition
and making their
own invention in order
to steer Roman poetry to
the eminence of
that of its Greek counterpart.
“shall be a poem so molded of common materials
that all the world may hope as much for itself.”
either follow tradition
or else what
you invent consistent. it is
hard to treat a commonly
known subject in
an original way. in
publicly known matters, you
will be able to
achieve originality if
you do translate
word for word nor
jump into a narrow
imitative grove, from which
both fear and the
rules followed in
the given work
prevent your escape.
Horace gives
more importance to
imitation of the
ancient Greek and
is less bothered
about the contemporary
writers. He does not advocate a
literal translation of the ancients, but
a sort of re-creation of
their works, by infusing
one’s own invention
with the tradition.
However in Ars Poetica
he reduce the concept
of mimesis to
a technical process of
either following the
tradition or making
one’s own invention
based on literary
principles.
Mimesis and identity
Mimesis is always been a theory
of art and theory of human nature. Art is commonly regarded as an instance of
an inherent human tendency towards imitation. The grouping of art and human nature
informs both critiques and defenses of mimesis. The instinct for imitation is implanted in a
man form his childhood. The concept of identification is seen in the work of Sigmund
Freud . memory and habit are also forms of imitation , sometimes we voluntarily
or unwilling imitate ourselves than others and experiences the action.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde was an Irish writes and poet..
After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's
most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Oscar Wilde believes that art does not
copy life and nature but rather constitutes its own world reality. So this
reality is independent and thus art becomes not a simple copy of nature but the
creative force of humanity. His view regarding poetry can be seen through his
claim that “Art never expresses anything but itself”. Art does not express any
imitating stuffs from life and nature but has its own substance form and mode
of expression. memory recalls a mental image, much as habit repeats an
action.
The concept of identification was
only one important version of mimesis to arise out of the late
nineteenth-century renewal of interest. Aristotle in suggesting that mimesis is
an integral part of human nature, but he also argues that the faculty I perverted
in society by envy and vanity.
‘Man is an imitator. Even animals
are. The taste for imitation belongs to well-ordered nature, but in society it
degenerates into vice. The ape imitates man whom he fears and does not imitate
the animals whom he despises. He judges to be good what is done by a being
better than he’. Rousseau
Anthropological accounts of
pre-modern imitation and sympathetic magic directly inform three important
discussions of mimesis from the 1930s and 1940s: the German literary and social
critic Walter Benjamin’s theory of the ‘mimetic faculty’;
CONCLUSION
The conception of aesthetics of 17th
and 18th century considers mimesis as bound to the imitation of
nature which is empirical and idealized. Aesthetic theory emphasized the
relationship of mimesis to artistic expression and began to include interior,
emotive, and subjective images and
representations. When people like Lessing and Rousseau are concerned,
there is a turn away from the Aristotelian conception of mimesis as the
imitation of nature. But it concerns with the assertion of individual
creativity in which the productive relationship of one mimetic world to another
is neglected.
Mimesis resists theory and constructs a
world of illusion, appearances, aesthetics, and images in which existing worlds
are appropriated, changed, and re-interpreted according to the critic
Derrida. Images are a part of our material existence, but also
mimetically bind our experience of reality to subjectivity and connote a
"sensuous experience that is beyond reference to reality".
Philosophers
and writers including Aristotle, Plato, Moliere, Shakespeare, Racine, Diderot
and Rousseau applied the mimetic theory of literary criticism to their work and
lives; modern thinkers such as Benjamin, Derrida, and Girard have reworked and
reapplied their ideas.
The mimetic theory is the
universal foundation of literature and of schools of literary criticism. The
pragmatic school of literary criticism deals with the relationship between text
and audience. The concern for the moral effects of art is often drawn from
mimetic theory. The expressive school deals with the relationship between poet
and work, and the objective school emphasizes the integrity of the work itself
without considering the audience, poet or external reality. the concept of
mimesis itself has developed
little over time.
Bibliography
Birch, Dinah, Ed. The Oxford companion to English Literature,
New York: Oxford University Press, 2009
Habeeb, M. A.R. A History of Literary Criticism: From
Plato the Present. USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005
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