Be mimetic

The author of the article analyzes mimesis in terms of behavior that does not aim to express and assert selfhood or identity, but only pretends to do so. “Being mimetic” means: “Stop being yourself and be like yourself!” The article reveals the implications and consequences of such behavior or such mimesis. The author recalls the famous anecdote when Theodor Adorno encounters a dog and urges it to be mimetic, placing it in the context of the relationship between mimesis and slapstick comedy. Through the rupture between “being” and “pretending” that emerges in comedy, mimesis becomes a liberating and pacifying power.

Another crucial characteristic of mimesis is the transformation of an activity or certain mode of being into an event. The mimesis shows something more than the activity itself. The comedians Beckman and Chaplin do not simply walk around the stage, they come walking: they raise walking to the level of an event. The audience experiences not only what is truly visible, but also what is immaterially present in the atmosphere of the landscape, which is embodied in the encompassing eroticization of the action. Walking, stroll appears here for a reason: the author notes their deep affinity with mimesis — simultaneously coming-and-going, absent and present, a walking to and a walking away. The author notes the gap that arises between mimetic behavior, which means to pretend to be what one is, and pretending of the actor and the comic. This gap reveals the place from which the actor or comic calls for “being mimetic” — the place of art and Kierkegaard’s “refusal” of it.