Mimesis
Mimesis is the representation or imitation of reality, especially the relation between an image or artwork and what it depicts.
Plato's Theory of Forms: Plato's account of timeless, perfect Forms as the foundations of sensible things. Plato treats artistic mimesis as a copy of appearances, which are themselves distant from the Forms.
Representation (arts): The use of signs, images, or forms to stand for people, objects, ideas, or events. Mimesis is one account of how artistic representation relates to its subject.
Plato: An ancient Greek philosopher whose dialogues examine knowledge, ethics, politics, and reality. His critique of poetry made mimesis a problem of truth and distance from reality.
Mimetic theory of art: The view that art is fundamentally shaped by imitating or representing reality. It makes mimesis a general explanation of what art does.
Expressionism: An artistic movement that emphasizes subjective feeling through distortion, color, and form. Expressionism prioritizes inner experience over faithful imitation of visible reality.
Aristotle's Poetics: A treatise analyzing tragedy, epic poetry, and the principles of poetic composition. Aristotle makes mimesis central to poetry and treats it as a natural human activity.
Iconicity: A sign's property of resembling or imitating the thing it signifies. Resemblance is one proposed basis for the image–object relation in mimesis.
Aristotle: An ancient Greek philosopher whose works span logic, biology, ethics, politics, and poetics. He recast imitation as a natural source of learning and artistic pleasure.
Literary realism: A literary mode that portrays ordinary life and social conditions with recognizable detail. Realist fiction uses plausible characters and settings to imitate lived experience.
Formalism (art): An approach to art that emphasizes formal properties such as composition, shape, and color. Formalism evaluates artworks by their organization rather than their resemblance to a subject.