The Aesthetics of Mimesis: Ancient Texts and Modern Problems

Preface vii Acknowledgments xi Note to the Reader xiii INTRODUCTION: Mimesis and the History of Aesthetics 1 PART I CHAPTER ONE Representation and Reality: Plato and Mimesis 37 CHAPTER TWO Romantic Puritanism: Plato and the Psychology of Mimesis 72 CHAPTER THREE Mimesis and the Best Life: Plato's Repudiation of the Tragic 98 CHAPTER FOUR More Than Meets the Eye: Looking into Plato's Mirror 118 PART II CHAPTER FIVE Inside and Outside the Work of Art: Aristotelian Mimesis Reevaluated 151 CHAPTER SIX The Rewards of Mimesis: Pleasure, Understanding, and Emotion in Aristotle's Aesthetics 177 CHAPTER SEVEN Tragic Pity: Aristotle and Beyond 207 CHAPTER EIGHT Music and the Limits of Mimesis: Aristotle versus Philodemus 234 PART III CHAPTER NINE Truth or Delusion?The Mimeticist Legacy in Hellenistic Philosophy 263 CHAPTER TEN Images of Life: Mimesis and Literary Criticism after Aristotle 287 CHAPTER ELEVEN Renewal and Transformation: Neoplatonism and Mimesis 313 CHAPTER TWELVE An Inheritance Contested: Renaissance to Modernity 344 Bibliography 383 Index 419