Aristotle on the Modes of Mimesis

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Aristotle on the Modes of Mimesis

A Textual and Interpretative Reassessment of Poetics 1448a27–29

Galván, Luis

From the journal Hermes Hermes, Volume 152, February 2024, issue 1

Published by Franz Steiner Verlag

article, 9474 Words
Original language: English
Hermes 2024, pp 40-56
https://doi.org/10.25162/hermes-2024-0003

Abstract Related content References

Abstract

This paper reassesses the Greek paradosis of Poetics 1448a27-29: πράττοντας γὰρ μιμοῦνται καὶ δρῶντας ἄμφω … ὅτι μιμοῦνται δρῶντας, which Isaac Casaubon proposed to emend by changing the participles into the nominative. A revision of the textual evidence and of Aristotle’s modus scribendi, together with a reappraisal of several objections raised to the emendation, suggests that Casaubon’s conjecture is highly plausible. Besides, it is contended that the reading πράττοντες … δρῶντες … δρῶντες, by pointing to the enactive aspect of mimesis, may help revise a certain one-sidedness of interpretations of Aristotelian mimesis as purely linguistic, cognitive, and intellectual.

Author information

Luis Galván

Keywords

Aristotle | Poetics | Isaac Casaubon | Textual criticism | Mimesis | Performance

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