Mimesis

Gunter Gebauer and Christoph Wulf are Professors in the Center for Historical Anthropology at the Free University of Berlin and the authors of several works of literary and cultural criticism. Don Reneau is a translator and writer in Berkeley, California.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Point of DepartureOn Auerbach's History of MimesisWorldmaking and Social PressureLiterary and Social Mimesis    Part I. Mimesis as Imitation, the Productionof Appearances, and Fiction2. On the Origins of the Concept3. Imitation, Illusion, Image (Plato)Similarity, Imitation, EducationAppearance and lllusionImages as Appearances with the Characterof Similarity4. The Break in the History of Mimesis:The Use of WritingOral PoetryBetween Oral and Literate Culture5. Poetic Mimesis (Aristotle)Part II. Mimesis as lmitatio, the Expression of Power,and Literate Subjectivity6. Mimesis as lmitatio7. Poetics and Power in the Renaissance8. lntertextuality, Fragmentation, Desire:Erasmus, Montaigne, ShakespearePart III. Mimesis as Enactment of the State9. The Conflict Over History: The Querelle des Ancienset des ModernesOn the History of the ConflictRacine and MoliereStructural Results10. Mimesis as the Self-Representation of Political PowerThe Portrait of the KingOn the Dramatic Practice of French ClassicismThe Representation of Daily Life in Comedy11. Against Mimesis as Self-RepresentationThe Critique of Self-Representation in Madamede LafayetteNegative AnthropologyTwo Attempts to Transcend Mimesis    Part IV. From Imitation to the Constitutionof the Creative Subject12. Problems in the Imitation of Naturein the Eighteenth Century13. Mimesis in the Theater of the Enlightenment14. Diderot's Paradox of Acting15. The Transformation of Mimesis in LessingLessing's Argument16. Self-Mimesis (Rousseau)Self-FormationPedagogy and SeductionPart V. Mimesis as the Principle of Worldmakingin the Novel and Society17. The Mimetic Constitution of Social RealityImages of a SocietyBalzac's Illusions perdues 22518. "Mimetic Desire" in the Work of Girard19. Violence in Antiromantic LiteratureThe Authorial I and OthersThe Relationships of I and Other in the NovelLanguage, Violence, and the Internal Perspective20. The Mimesis of Violence (Girard)Part VI. Mimesis as Entree to the World, Language,and Writing21. Nonsensuous Similarity: On theLinguistic Anthropology of Benjamin22. Vital Experience (Adorno)23. The Between-Character of Mimesis (Derrida)ResultsHistorical Positions of MimesisThe Dimensions of MimesisNotesBibliographyIndex