Mimesis e comportamento recuperato

Abstract

In light of a recent academic confrontation on the relationships between philosophy and performance and of the paradigm shift which led to the emergence of a new (post)discipline that takes the notion of performance as its cornerstone, the essay discusses the productive convergence between mimesis and “restored behavior”, the key process of every kind of performance in art, ritual, and ordinary life. Provided we rely on a postmodern and, at the same time, pre-Platonic conception of mimesis, it is my opinion that theatre and performance, as practices as well as academic disciplines, will revaluate mimesis as a fundamental way of knowing. Even though the two notions are all but equal, evidence for their proximity can be found in the work of some scholars, who have focused on these topics in different ways.