Mimesis

Mimesis is often used as a literary term to signify the ability to mimic real life.  The narrative is not the real thing.  It is the record of what happened.  As accurate and clear as it might be ... it is never the thing itself ... only a faint image of the thing.  A story is a photograph of reality, and the storyteller is the photographer. However, the photographs created by the storyteller are not static. Like the framed pictures in Harry Potter, they are three-dimensional and have the ability to move, showing us various facets of the reality they portray.  They don't fade or turn yellow with time because they are dymanic.  The places in the narrative that make the story move (make it feel real) are the points of mimesis.

For instance, in the story of Joseph and his brothers, there is a place in the narrative where Jacob sends Joseph to check up on his brothers who are grazing cattle in the area of Shechem.  Joseph goes to Shechem but does not find them.  The Bible says that a man found Joseph wandering around in the fields and asked him, "What are you looking for?"  Joseph answers, "My brothers."  The man says, "Oh ... I overheard them say that they were moving on to Dothan."  So Joseph makes his way to Dothan, where he finds his brothers ... and then wishes he hadn't (but that's another story).

This little scene where Joseph can't find his brothers and is helped by the nameless man is a perfect example of mimesis at work.  The episode serves no purpose in the story.  Why does the storyteller include it?  It serves to prolong the story a bit, building tension to the dramatic and inevitable climax of attempted murder.  Perhaps.  It may be that's it's included simply because that's the way it happened (hello???).  Joseph didn't go straight to Dothan to find his brothers.  He went to Shechem first because that's where he thought they were working, and was then directed to Dothan.  There is no deep spiritual lesson to be learned from this ... it's just the way it happened (or at least the way the storyteller heard it).  So it was passed on, exactly as heard, down the ages.  And it has the ring of real life to it, doesn't it?  That's mimesis, and you find it everywhere in the Bible.

More on Joseph, his brothers, and three-dimensional characters ... tomorrow ...
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