Mimesis in Its Religious Contexts  Cover Image

Mimesis – kontektsy religijne
Mimesis in Its Religious Contexts

Author(s): Andrzej Zawadzki
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Mimesis; Religious experience; Real image; trace.

Summary/Abstract: The author specifies three primary problem areas concerning the relations between mimesis and religious experience as a broad concept. The first relates to an archaic notion, associated with ritual dance and the individual’s participation in the universal order. The second area conceives of imitation as following someone/something (Greek akolutheo; Latin sequere) considered as an ethic model. A third area is the concept of the so-called real image, to which a revelatory function is attached, and a special status in culture. The real image tradition is composed of two sources: Greek ‘natural’ images, being part of the order of physis rather than techne, and Christian sacred images, esp. the icon. The article discusses the mimetic structure of the ‘real image’ as opposed to the main modern concepts of imagery. The article finally proposes a differentiation between the ‘image’ and the ‘trace’, which, deriving form religious thinking, play a key role in contemporary aesthetics.

  • Issue Year: 2010
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 45-59
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Polish