Mimesis, Sameness, and Difference

Mimesis is fundamentally binary--a combination of two components, Sameness and Difference. The Mimete is in some respects the same as the Mimant, but in others it is different from it. The ratio of Difference to Sameness, in the comparison of Mimete to Mimant, is the Mimetic Degree of the Mimesis. The Mimete reproduces, represents, and abstracts from, the Mimant. Hence, the Mimant necessarily pre-exists the Mimete. But, though the emphasis in Mimesis is typically on the similarity between Mimete and Mimant, the co-fundamentality of their difference should not be underemphasized. For, without the contribution of some process of divergence from a potential Mimant, Mimesis could not even occur. Deleuze makes an analogous point regarding Repetition--a Repetition entails both Sameness and Difference between the involved moments, which the traditional Philosophical subordination of Difference to Identity obscures. But, while his Philosophy of Difference inverts the priority, here it suffices to observe the co-essentiality of both to Mimesis. Priority of either to the other is a function of context, e. g. what might be disapproved 'apery' in one context, can have the same Mimetic Degree as what is praiseworthy 'verisimilitude' in another.