Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Mimesis (/ m ɪ ˈ m iː s ɪ s, m aɪ-/; [1] Ancient Greek: μίμησις, mīmēsis) is a term used in literary criticism and philosophy that carries a wide range of meanings, including imitatio, imitation, nonsensuous [clarification needed] similarity, receptivity, representation, mimicry, the act of expression, the act of resembling, and the presentation of the self.
The genres all share the function of mimesis, or imitation of life, but differ in three ways that Aristotle describes: There are differences in music rhythm, harmony, meter, and melody. There is a difference of goodness in the characters.
Mimesis criticism is a method of interpreting texts in relation to their literary or cultural models. Mimesis, or imitation ( imitatio ), was a widely used rhetorical tool in antiquity up until the 18th century's romantic emphasis on originality.
Dionysius' concept marked a significant departure from the concept of mimesis formulated by Aristotle in the 4th century BCE, which was only concerned with "imitation of nature" instead of the "imitation of other authors." [1] Latin orators and rhetoricians adopted the literary method of Dionysius' imitatio and discarded Aristotle's mimesis. [1]
According to Plato, lexis is the manner of speaking.Plato said that lexis can be divided into mimesis (imitation properly speaking) and diegesis (simple narrative). Gerard Genette states: "Plato's theoretical division, opposing the two pure and heterogeneous modes of narrative and imitation, within poetic diction, elicits and establishes a practical classification of genres, which includes the ...
The phrase may be considered synonymous with anti-mimesis, the direct opposite of Aristotelian mimesis: art imitating real life. The idea's most notable proponent is Oscar Wilde , who opined in an 1889 essay that, "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life".
[4] For Else, catharsis is an Aristotelian concept which must be read alongside the literary concepts of mimesis and hamartia as well. These latter two concepts are usually paraphrased as "literary representation" and "intellectual error" in Else's appraisal of Aristotle's literary aesthetic theory.
As already mentioned, Aristotle wrote the first critical study of the tragedy: the Poetics. He uses the concepts of mimesis (μίμησις, "imitation"), and catharsis or katharsis (κάθαρσις, "cleansing") to explain the function of tragedy.