Vincenzo Fiore Marrese

Art and imitation

Abstract

According to the dictionary, to imitate has at least two meanings: to behave like someone else or to make a copy of someone or something else[note 1]. One can imagine an actor playing a role and a photographer making a picture. One can imagine these people as a poet and a painter. More than two thousand years ago, a text stated that some poets and painters were imitators[note 2]. This text laid the foundations of the concept of art as imitation[note 3]. However, according to scholars, the context of the text is not entirely clear[note 4]. Notably, the meaning of poetry and imitation are argumentable[note 5].

Bibliography

1. Plato. Republic. Translated by Allan Bloom. 2nd ed. New York: Basic Books, 1991.
2. Sontag, Susan. Against Interpretation. Reprinted. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1969.

Notes

1. Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary, s.v. "imitate," accessed 4 May, 2023, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/imitateback to the text
2. Plato, Republic, 394c, 597e.back to the text
3. Sontag, Against Interpretation, 13.back to the text
4. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, s.v. "Plato on Rhetoric and Poetry," by Charles Griswold, accessed May 4, 2023. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/plato-rhetoric/back to the text
5. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, s.v. "Plato on Rhetoric and Poetry," by Charles Griswold, accessed May 4, 2023. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/plato-rhetoric/back to the text