Aristotle confined his description to tragedy , but clearly mimesis is at the root of every art.
All arts involve the ordering of reality to produce a kind of tareality.
The concept has been much discussed by Western critics and artists since Aristotle's time, particularly with relation to literature , and two opposing views have developed. On the one side, it is believed that because the arts present images of reality rather than reality itself, they are essentially fraudulent and not worthy of attention. This attitude has been particularly prevalent among Marxist artists and critics in this century. This concept was particularly favoured in the Far East in the 17th and 18th centuries, and in the ' art for art's sake ' Western movements of the 19th century. McLeish, Kenneth KMcL Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought 2.