Mimēsis

Mimēsis (μίμησις) means imitation, representation, or mimicry — the way one thing copies or stands for another. It comes from mimeisthai, 'to imitate', and from the mimos, the mime or actor; it gives us 'mimic', 'mime', and 'mimetic'. It became the central concept in the ancient understanding of art and poetry.

Plato's suspicion

Plato treats mimēsis with deep wariness, above all in the Republic. Since the things of this world are themselves only images of the Forms, the painter or poet who imitates those things makes an imitation of an imitation — at a third remove from reality. Worse, imitative poetry stirs the passions and feeds the lower parts of the soul, which is why the ideal city must keep so close a watch upon it.

Aristotle's defense

Aristotle answered with a gentler view in the Poetics. Imitation, he held, is natural to us and one of our chief means of learning and delight: we take pleasure in recognizing what a representation depicts. Far from being worthless, the mimēsis of action in tragedy can reveal universal truths and work a katharsis of pity and fear. The quarrel between these two verdicts has shaped theories of art ever since.