Mimesis: From Pre-Platonic Mythopoesis to Contemporary Critical Theory

"The legacy of this Aristotelian framework (mimesis) is evident in Western literary history, where it served as a critical lens for understanding the work of authors from Shakespeare, who used mimesis to capture the universal human condition, to Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad, who employed it to represent the complexities of internal consciousness and the pathologies of social violence. Today, mimesis continues to be a relevant and vital concept, reinterpreted in a world of simulation and digital technology and used by critical schools to analyze everything from Biblical texts to postmodern social structures. The comparison with Sanskrit poetics demonstrates that while the core act of imitation is universal, its philosophical purpose—whether it is for catharsis or for the achievement of Rasa, is culturally specific. Ultimately, mimesis, in all its forms, remains a central intellectual concern because it attempts to answer a fundamental question: what is the relationship between art and the world it seeks to represent"?