Lably
Skip to content

Mimesis criticism

Method of interpreting texts

  • 9 min read
  • 4 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Characterization, Classics and Odyssey

Lab · Class 8–9Areas of Parallelograms and TrianglesLab · Class 11Child DevelopmentLab · Class 11Psychology ExperimentsLabNursery Rhymes

As a critical method, mimesis criticism has been pioneered by Dennis MacDonald, especially in relation to New Testament and other early Christian narratives imitating the "canonical" works of Classical Greek literature.

History

Aristotle

Greek rhetorician Aristotle (4th century BCE) discusses the rhetorical technique of mimesis or imitation; what Aristotle describes, however, is the author's imitation of nature, not earlier literary or cultural models.

Philodemus

Philodemus of Gadara (1st century BCE), an Epicurean philosopher and poet and one of Virgil's teachers, affirms that writers of prose histories and fictions used literary models. He writes (rhetorically) in book five of On Poetry, "Who would claim that the writing of prose is not reliant on the Homeric poems?" (5.30.36–31.)

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

A Greek historian and rhetorician from the late first century BCE/early first century CE, Dionysius of Halicarnassus represents a change from the Aristotelian rhetorical notion of mimesis, from imitation of nature's to imitation of literature. His most important work in this respect, On Mimesis (Περὶ μιμήσεως, Perì mimēseōs), survives only in fragments. Apparently, most of this work concerned the proper selection of literary models.

Quintilian

Roman rhetorician M. Fabius Quintilianus published his twelve-volume Institutio oratoria around 95 CE. In book 10, Quintilian—who was well-read with respect to both Greek and Latin rhetoricians, including Dionysius—gives advice to teachers who are instructing students in oration. He tells them that, by the time students begin composition, they should be so well-versed in exemplary models that are able to imitate them without physically consulting them (10.1.5). Quintilian writes,

For in everything which we teach examples are more effective even than the rules which are taught in the schools, so long as the student has reached a stage when he can appreciate such examples without the assistance of a teacher, and can rely on his own powers to imitate them. (10.1.15; Butler, LCL)

He also advises that students constantly reread the exemplary models (10.1.19), not only in sections but all the way through (10.1.20), so that they might be empowered to imitate these models with more craft and subtlety.

Of course, the selection of one's literary model is of the utmost importance. In Quintilian's opinion, one could find no better model than Homer, "for he has given us a model and an inspiration for very department of eloquence" (10.1.46; Butler, LCL). When it comes to the act of imitation itself, he writes,

There can be no doubt that in art no small portion of our task lies in imitation, since, although invention came first and is all-important, it is expedient to imitate whatever has been invented with success. And it is a universal rule of life that we should wish to copy what we approve in others. It is for this reason that boys copy the shapes of letters that they may learn to write, and that musicians take the voices of their teachers, painters the works of their predecessors, and peasants the principles of agriculture which have been proved in practice, as models for their imitation. In fact, we may note that the elementary study of every branch of learning is directed by reference to some definite standard that is placed before the learner. (10.2.1–2; Butler, LCL)

Furthermore, students are encouraged to improve upon their chosen models (10.2.12). One way for students to accomplish this task, Quintilian says, is to imitate several models in eclectic fashion: "We shall do well to keep a number of different excellences before our eyes, so that different qualities from different authors may impose themselves on our minds, to be adopted for use in the place that becomes them best" (10.2.26; Butler, LCL). On this point, Quintilian was at odds with Cicero, who felt it best for authors to imitate a single author.

Sign in to keep reading

3 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Philosophy

PhilosophyStudy of general and fundamental questionsConfucianismChinese ethical and philosophical systemEthicsPhilosophical study of moralityEpistemologyPhilosophical study of knowledgeLogicStudy of correct reasoningMetaphysicsStudy of fundamental reality