Studies in mimesis in Greek literature before Aristotle

Truscott, John Robertson (1988) Studies in mimesis in Greek literature before Aristotle. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

An investigation of the origin, evolution and actual occurrences of the mimeisthai-group of cognate words, with regard for the social context. From its inception, the mimeisthai-group is concerned with the fabrication of illusion in drama and the other arts. The origin of the first word of the group, mimos, may be etymologically related to Sanskrit maya (a word which possesses similar connotations of illusion and deception); mimos originates in the sphere of the Sicilian mime-performance, a comic low-life genre. A structurally oriented approach to the development of the word-group shows that it supplanted the earlier iskein/eiskein in signifying `imitation', `impersonation' and `making a resembling image' in art. The process of evolution involved the expansion of mimeisthai and eikazein (`compare', `conjecture') and the parallel contraction and eventual obsolescence of iskein/eiskein. Reasons for this evolution are suggested. Attention is mainly given to the dramatic and artistic uses of the word-group; in these contexts mimeisthai and cognates signify an aim to produce a convincing illusion of life by means of exact resemblance to phenomenal originals. They establish the arts of music, drama, poetry, painting and sculpture as concerned with illusory semblance; some instances of the word-group are in contexts in which an aesthetic of the reception of mimetic art is outlined. Particular consideration is given to usage of the noun mimema, usually considered to refer to the static resembling artefact; in fact, this word more often designates some kinetic, dynamic phenomenon and is regularly used of dramatic performance. Platonic mimesis is analysed in its various philosophical contexts, and attention is given to the particular Platonic emphasis on concepts in current use. In the sphere of the arts, this emphasis is usually reductive and pejorative, implying the inferiority of the products of artistic creation to the reality which they represent. The use of drama in the two states which Plato founds (in the Republic and the Laws) is analysed and the notion of dramatic mimesis considered in relation to phenomenal reality, the individual psyche and the community. The elucidation of the relationship between dramatic illusion and psychological identification is undertaken.

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