Theories of Mimesis

Book excerpt: Mimesis, with its connecting concepts of imitation, simile, and similarity, has been cited since classical times in the exploration of the relationship between art and reality. In this major study Arne Melberg discusses the theory and history of mimesis through narratological analysis of texts by Plato, Cervantes, Rousseau, and Kierkegaard. Moving away from the relatively straightforward 'representation of reality' ideas in Erich Auerbach's Mimesis (1946), Melberg brings the concept of mimesis into the context of the literary theories of de Man and others. Theories of Mimesis is a strenuously argued account of language and time, charting the movement of mimesis from the Platonic philosophy of similarity to modern ideas of difference.