Question:
Mimesis' What does it mean?
Why do artist replicate what lies right before their very eyes? Some, including Plato, argue that mimetic art shows us what we can already see while others maintain that this kind of art shows us what otherwise could not be perceived? Compare and contrast these two views? What is the purpose of art which reflects back to us the world.?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Mimesis (㎹from ) in its simplest context means imitation or representation in Greek.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mimesis...
1. In the arts, mimesis is considered to be re-presenting the human emotions in new ways and thus representing to the onlooker, listener or reader the inherent nature of these emotions and the psychological truth of the work of art.
Mimesis is thus thought to be a means of perceiving the emotions of the characters on stage or in the book; or the truth of the figures as they appear in sculpture or in painting; or the emotions as they are being configured in music, and of their being recognised by the onlooker as part of their human condition.
*Examples*
In sculpture, mimesis mirrors the plasticity of an image an onlooker has with which he can empathize within a given situation. In Rodin's The Kiss, for example, the protective arms of the male and seeming trustfulness of the female figure enclosed within her partner's limbs, down to the stance of their feet, is a position all humans would recognize immediately in that the trust and truth that permeates the erotic element of the statue is that which is entailed in the relationship of any man and woman in a similar situation.
In Picasso's Guernica, the artist re-presents the destruction of life and the terror it causes in a way this kind of cubistic image lends itself to most dramatically. The fractured details of the composition, the tortured faces, the screams that may be almost audibly imagined, the terrified horse, the bull, the dismembered limbs: all these things help making the picture most memorable for the truth it brings to the observer. However, the face of the woman holding a light may be seen either as a face of stoic resignation throwing light on the devastation, or a face of luciferous evil swooping in malevolent satisfaction.
In Beethoven's "6th Symphony" (the Pastoral), music re-presents the various stages of a stay in the country, of a person's emotions and moods that are metamorphosed into movements of music most faithfully corresponding to these emotions. Thus, the pleasurable anticipation on arrival in the country; the various happy scenes of their associating with countryfolk; a shepherd's song; birdsongs; a storm and the thankfulness after it is over; all will be observed and recognised readily by the audience.
2. Both Plato and Aristotle saw, in mimesis (Greek ㎹, the representation of nature. Plato wrote about mimesis in both Ion and The Republic (Book I&II and Book X). In Ion he states that poetry is the art of divine madness, or inspiration. Because of this, the poet cannot be expected nor held responsible for the conveying of truth; truth, according to Plato, is the domain of philosophy only. Plato thought all creation was imitation, and so the gods' creation was an imitation of the truth and essence of nature, and an artist's re-presentation of this god-created reality was twice-removed representation, leading away from the Ideal. This is why Plato considers poets, painters, and other representational artists "two steps removed from the truth."
Aristotle was not against fiction; he stated that human beings are mimetic beings, feeling an urge to create texts (art) that reflect reality. Aristotle considered it important that there be a certain distance between the work of art and life; we draw knowledge and consolation from tragedies only because they do not happen to us. Without this distance, tragedy could not give rise to catharsis. Aristotle thought of drama as being "an imitation of an action," that of tragedy as of "falling from a higher to a lower estate", and so being removed to a less ideal situation in more tragic circumstances than before. He posited the characters in tragedy as being better than the average human being, and those of comedy as being worse.