Literary notes about mimic (AI summary)
The term "mimic" in literature serves as a multifaceted device to illustrate imitation and artifice in both behavior and representation. Authors employ it to comment on characters or scenes that are not entirely genuine—whether as a rehearsal of actions or as a deliberate copy of nature, art, or emotion. For instance, a character’s prearranged performance is depicted as mimicking a real-life display, adding a layer of irony to the narrative [1]. At times, natural phenomena themselves are described with a mimetic quality, imbuing the landscape with an eerie, performative aspect [2]. In dramatic and humorous contexts, mimicry is utilized to underscore the superficiality or absurdity inherent in social behaviors and conflicts [3, 4]. Moreover, mimic is invoked to mirror human emotion, sometimes suggesting that the imitation falls short of capturing the genuine intensity of feeling [5]. Overall, the term enriches literary expression by drawing attention to the tension between authentic experience and its echoed representation [6, 7].
- (Had not all this terrible scene—making the mimic ones preposterous—had it not all been rehears'd, in blank, by Booth, beforehand?)
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - November Mr. Miller had the delight of seeing the vessel gliding over the mimic waves of the lake at the rate of five miles an hour.
— from Triumphs of Invention and Discovery in Art and Science by J. Hamilton (James Hamilton) Fyfe - Young dogs are bound to play, and out of the exigencies of the situation they realised their play in this mimic warfare.
— from White Fang by Jack London - And he said, She is mistress of arts, I'll assure you; and will mimic a fit, ten to one, in a minute.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson - I might mimic a passion that I do not feel, but I cannot mimic one that burns me like fire.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - Here, where the mimic eagle glared in gold, A midnight vigil holds the swarthy bat!
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - Rebecca used to mimic her to her face with the most admirable gravity, thereby rendering the imitation doubly piquant to her worthy patroness.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
