Mimesis as Metamorphosis in Classical Greek Literature

Mimesis as Metamorphosis in Classical Greek LiteratureBorst, Zachary

 The aim of my dissertation is to trace an intellectual and theoretical trend in classical Greek literature and philosophy that ironizes and theorizes dramatic mimesis as transformative. The texts I will examine in my dissertation are loci classici for thinking about ancient literary criticism (e.g. Aristophanes’ Frogs) as well as mimesis (Plato’s Republic), and the originality of my project lies in bringing these texts together in order to think through a cluster of related concepts: mimesis, the body, and being and becoming. I will show show that the literary texts of Aristophanes and Euripides, in particular, shed light on dramatists’ views of mimesis, and I argue that they offer an alternative to the view of mimesis in Republic Book 10 as an image impoverished of being and knowledge. In Aristophanes and Euripides putting on a costume can change one’s bodily comportment and ultimately one’s character and behavior.

By sketching a history of mimesis that precedes the work of Plato and Aristotle, my project brings out an alternative view of mimesis. I read the language surrounding mimesis in Aristophanes, Euripides, and Plato closely in order to show how mimesis is put into conversation with important thematic binaries such as being/becoming and seeming/being. Mimesis is often depicted not merely as a disguise or copy, but as a transformational force that affecting poets, actors, and audiences. By unpacking the depth and diversity of the discourses surrounding mimesis, we can see that it is connected to other topics in the intellectual revolution of the 5th c. BCE, such as nomos and physis and the development and profusion of rhetoric. In the dissertation I use the term “mimetic metamorphosis” to convey this notion of mimesis as metamorphosis. “Mimetic metamorphosis” is a helpful term because it covers both the scenes that depict poets or characters becoming or representing different people (such as Dicaeopolis becoming Telephus in Aristophanes’ Acharnians) and the theoretical discourse surrounding these scenes. In order for authors of literary works to theorize mimesis as transformational, the scenes in which these transformations are depicted are often highly metatheatrical. This allows for commentary on the nature of mimesis. Thus, “mimetic metamorphosis” applies both to the metamorphoses that are represented through the enactment of dramatic mimesis and to the metatheatrical, often ironic, commentary surrounding mimesis as a transformative force. Characters draw attention to the costumes, gestures, and language they put on to appear like another, and the language surrounding these scenes reveals a concerted interest in recurrent themes of being and becoming, often with reference to the words εἰμί (“be”) and γίγνομαι (“become”).

Ultimately, my aim with this project and the term mimetic metamorphosis is to revise the view of mimesis as a mere imitation or copy that is inherited from Book 10 of Plato’s Republic. I trace these alternative views of mimesis in order to show that there is a rich conception of mimesis prior to Plato and that this discussion has an undercurrent in Plato’s poetics. My project offers new insights into the texts in question as well as ancient literary criticism and mimesis. By placing these texts in conversation with each other, I argue that Aristophanes, Euripides, and Plato theorize that mimetic poetry is a medium affecting authors, performers, and audiences in a similar way. By imitating a character and taking on that character’s defining traits, one differs from the person one was before. This kind of transformation and self-likening to another also allows for one to empathize with a fictional character. By reading for the literary representation and theorization of mimesis, or “mimetic metamorphosis,” I argue that classical Greek literature views poetry as an affective, transformational force that challenges being and notions of the self.