ABSTRACT
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato provided the first and unquestionably the most influential account of mimesis. Although he refers to mimesis at many points in his career, the most important discussion of the topic comes in his dialogue the Republic, a wide-ranging work of political, ethical and literary theory that was probably written around 380 BCE. Plato does not simply comment upon an existing notion of mimesis in this dialogue but radically redefines art as essentially mimetic, as a representation of something else. This notion is so fundamental to the way we understand art that it is no exaggeration to claim that art itself, as a distinct human product, is a Platonic invention. Plato’s theory of mimesis is very complicated, but is made even more so by the fact that, in this dialogue as elsewhere in his works, Plato speaks through the figure of his deceased teacher Socrates, so we are never certain whether any given utterance should be taken seriously or ironically. Nevertheless, the effect of this theory is so profound that no discussion of art and representation can avoid some engagement with Plato’s definition. To this extent, the history of literary and artistic theory begins with Plato’s account of mimesis.
