ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -According to Plato’s theory of mimesis (imitation) the arts deal with illusion and they are imitation of an imitation. Thus, they are twice removed from reality. As a moralist, Plato disapproves of poetry because it is immoral, as a philosopher he disapproves of it because it is based in falsehood.

Detailed explanation-2: -Thus, Plato declared poetry to be unreal, twice or thrice removed from reality. There is nothing creative as such but is imitative. Aristotle’s Theory of Mimesis: There is no doubt that Aristotle inherited the word ‘mimesis’ from Plato.

Detailed explanation-3: -According to him, a real artist is more concerned with realities and not with the imitations of it. He says, hence, the poets mere imitators, like the artists and merely imitate things without having much knowledge about it themselves. And hence, Plato says that poets, like artists, are thrice removed from reality.

Detailed explanation-4: -For Plato, since art is an imitation of an imitation it is in effect three times removed from the truth. As a result, Plato interprets this to mean that art cannot give the viewer any real knowledge about the world (Palmer, p 438).

Detailed explanation-5: -Epistemological: An imitation is at three removes from the reality or truth of something (example of bed).