How does one recreate “reality” in art? Is it possible to recreate “reality” in art? These are the questions that guide the study of Mimesis. But what is mimesis? And what does mimesis mean? We’re going to answer all of these questions by outlining the history of mimesis, as well as a mimesis definition. By the end, you’ll know what mimesis means.
Mimesis Art Examination
Where did mimesis originate?
Long, long ago, circa ~375 BCE, the Greek philosopher Plato delivered one of the world’s first treatises on mimesis in his seminal text The Republic. In the book, Plato questioned the ways in which humans seek to recreate “reality” in art. However, Plato seemed to believe – through his proxy Socrates – that reality could not be recreated. Art is an inherently false medium, and that the process of mimesis distorts the truth.
Plato writes:
QUOTE
“I have loved Homer ever since I was a boy, and even now he appears to me to be the great master of tragic poetry. But much as I love the man, I love truth more, and therefore I must speak out: and first of all, will you explain what is imitation, for really I do not understand? ’How likely then that I should understand!’” – Plato
Here, Plato suggests that the Greek tragedian Homer – although a “master of tragic poetry” – is a propagator of falsehoods. His “imitation” of the “real world” through poetry gives people a false impression of “reality.”
He then asks – through a character conduit – what “imitation” is. So, let us answer that, and formally define mimesis AKA “imitation.”
MIMESIS DEFINITION
What is mimesis?
Mimesis is the imitation of “reality” through art.
Platonic mimesis is considered a distortion of “truth.”
The definition of mimesis has been debated by many of the world’s preeminent philosophers for more than 2000 years.
Questions of Mimesis:
- What is “reality?”
- How do we determine “reality?”
- Through which artistic means do we translate “reality?”
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The Greek Mimesis Meaning
What is Plato’s critique of mimesis?
Plato outlines an analogy to demonstrate the folly of mimesis. He says in his classic mimesis example: “Let us assume the existence of beds and tables. There is one idea of a bed, or of a table, which the maker of each had in his mind when making them; he did not make the ideas of beds and tables, but he made beds and tables according to the ideas.”
In Plato’s estimation, people can only recreate their own ideas of true forms like beds and tables, which falsifies them in the process. It is impossible to recreate things as they truly are; in fact, most people cannot even see things for what they truly are.
Plato illuminated this problem in his famous allegory of the cave, in which a cave dweller only sees a false impression of reality in the form of shadows. Check out our video on the allegory of the cave below!
What is Mimesis? Plato’s Allegory of the Cave • Subscribe on YouTube
In Plato’s allegory of the cave, the shadows represent our false impression of “reality.” If we extend this metaphor, then we can say that our various arts – such drawing, painting, and writing – are shadow plays, or false attempts at replicating “reality.”
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Plato though; he did believe that true philosophers could at least see the truth of “reality” even if they couldn’t replicate it through art.
Plato’s inquiry into “reality” would go on to inspire countless works of Aristotle, particularly Metaphysics; which is now the field of study that examines the nature of “reality” itself. Aristotle’s examination of mimesis, or Aristotelian mimesis, has been central to the study of art, metaphysics, narratology, and ontology for thousands of years.
Up Next
What is Aristotle’s Poetics?
We’ve covered the basics of Plato’s theory of mimesis, but there’s so much more to the term than what we went over here. Some of Aristotle’s most famous writings on mimesis take place in Poetics. Want to learn more? Check out our article on Aristotle’s Poetics where we break down six elements of great storytelling. By the end, you’ll know more about mimesis and other key facets of Poetics!
