« PAINTING | Main | Tannen Article - What is Linguistic Style? »
October 06, 2005
Mimesis vs Social Construction
The debate regarding mimesis versus social construction is difficult to understand as a whole, much less come to a conclusion. Representation is complex and reaching conclusions is very much a matter of opinion. Mimesis refers to visual representations being returned to us as accurate and realistic, while social construction refers to creating an impression of a visual representation based on cultural meaning. Social constuction does seem more realistic, even though it involves distortion of reality. For instance, a Picasso painting is of something that actually existed in real life, but it does not look like this object through mimesis. Instead, it is a representation that we can understand because of social construction. Also, advertisements can give us a false reflection of the world because they are an attempt to idealize their product.
Posted by lcishagan at October 6, 2005 11:50 PM
Comments
You are certainly right, Ariel,that representation is an incredibly complex concept. I liked your calling on Picasso in this case, because in fact he is a perfect example...his work that is...of both mimesis...albeit distorted and abstracted and social construction interwoven one with the other....Nice connection!
Posted by: Ellen Grabiner at October 9, 2005 07:50 AM