Graeme D. Ruxton, Thomas N. Sherratt, and Michael P. Speed
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198528609
- eISBN:
- 9780191713392
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528609.003.0015
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology
This chapter provides a synthesis of the current state of the field of sensory aspects of predator-prey interactions. Suggestions are made for what the key outstanding questions are and how they ...
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This chapter provides a synthesis of the current state of the field of sensory aspects of predator-prey interactions. Suggestions are made for what the key outstanding questions are and how they might be addressed.Less
This chapter provides a synthesis of the current state of the field of sensory aspects of predator-prey interactions. Suggestions are made for what the key outstanding questions are and how they might be addressed.
Graeme D. Ruxton, Thomas N. Sherratt, and Michael P. Speed
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198528609
- eISBN:
- 9780191713392
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528609.003.0011
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology
If an undefended species (the mimic) were to adopt the same warning signal as a defended species (the model), then it might be able to gain protection from predators without investing in defence. ...
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If an undefended species (the mimic) were to adopt the same warning signal as a defended species (the model), then it might be able to gain protection from predators without investing in defence. This Batesian mimicry may weaken the protection which the signal gives individuals of the defended species, since the predator experiences a less clear relationship between signal and defence as it samples both models and mimics. This chapter examines both the theory of this phenomenon and the empirical evidence for it. The outstanding questions and controversies in this area are addressed.Less
If an undefended species (the mimic) were to adopt the same warning signal as a defended species (the model), then it might be able to gain protection from predators without investing in defence. This Batesian mimicry may weaken the protection which the signal gives individuals of the defended species, since the predator experiences a less clear relationship between signal and defence as it samples both models and mimics. This chapter examines both the theory of this phenomenon and the empirical evidence for it. The outstanding questions and controversies in this area are addressed.
Graeme D. Ruxton, Thomas N. Sherratt, and Michael P. Speed
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198528609
- eISBN:
- 9780191713392
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528609.003.0013
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology
This chapter examines the phenomenon of automimicry, where individuals within a population may share the same warning signal but differ in their investment in defence. It seeks to explain the ...
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This chapter examines the phenomenon of automimicry, where individuals within a population may share the same warning signal but differ in their investment in defence. It seeks to explain the evolution of this variability and how the predator’s continued appropriate response to the warning signal can be maintained in the face of this potential decrease in signal reliability. It also considers the use of mimicry by predators (aggressive mimicry), floral mimicry that attracts pollinators, and intraspecific sexual mimicry.Less
This chapter examines the phenomenon of automimicry, where individuals within a population may share the same warning signal but differ in their investment in defence. It seeks to explain the evolution of this variability and how the predator’s continued appropriate response to the warning signal can be maintained in the face of this potential decrease in signal reliability. It also considers the use of mimicry by predators (aggressive mimicry), floral mimicry that attracts pollinators, and intraspecific sexual mimicry.
John V. Kulvicki
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199290758
- eISBN:
- 9780191604010
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019929075X.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
Verity, discussed in Chapter 11, is not the whole story about pictorial realism. Other accounts of realism appeal to the relative informativeness of representations, the way in which perceiving them ...
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Verity, discussed in Chapter 11, is not the whole story about pictorial realism. Other accounts of realism appeal to the relative informativeness of representations, the way in which perceiving them mimics our perception of their contents, and the extent to which they are of a standard kind. There is something right about each of these approaches, and this chapter sorts that out in light of the new account of depiction presented earlier.Less
Verity, discussed in Chapter 11, is not the whole story about pictorial realism. Other accounts of realism appeal to the relative informativeness of representations, the way in which perceiving them mimics our perception of their contents, and the extent to which they are of a standard kind. There is something right about each of these approaches, and this chapter sorts that out in light of the new account of depiction presented earlier.
Alvin I. Goldman
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195138924
- eISBN:
- 9780199786480
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195138929.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Many of our distinctively human social traits are interwoven with simulational propensities. A stroll through simulation-related topics includes the psychological underpinnings of social bonds, our ...
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Many of our distinctively human social traits are interwoven with simulational propensities. A stroll through simulation-related topics includes the psychological underpinnings of social bonds, our fascination with fiction, and the relevance of simulation and empathy to moral theory. The “chameleon effect”, which involves unconscious mimicry of facial expressions, postures, and mannerisms, promotes cohesion and liking within a group. Enactment imagination and empathy lie at the core of our experience of fiction. Emotional empathy, i.e., affective contagion, is a crucial determinant of the quality of life, and high-level empathy, or perspective taking, plays a critical role in moral motivation and moral principles, especially universalization principles like the golden rule.Less
Many of our distinctively human social traits are interwoven with simulational propensities. A stroll through simulation-related topics includes the psychological underpinnings of social bonds, our fascination with fiction, and the relevance of simulation and empathy to moral theory. The “chameleon effect”, which involves unconscious mimicry of facial expressions, postures, and mannerisms, promotes cohesion and liking within a group. Enactment imagination and empathy lie at the core of our experience of fiction. Emotional empathy, i.e., affective contagion, is a crucial determinant of the quality of life, and high-level empathy, or perspective taking, plays a critical role in moral motivation and moral principles, especially universalization principles like the golden rule.
Davod R. Nash and Jacobus J. Boomsma
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199216840
- eISBN:
- 9780191712043
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199216840.003.0004
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
All parasites need to evade host defences to be successful. Social parasites, however, face unique challenges and opportunities. Their hosts are particularly well defended against intruders, but ...
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All parasites need to evade host defences to be successful. Social parasites, however, face unique challenges and opportunities. Their hosts are particularly well defended against intruders, but their social communication systems provide an alternative means of exploitation, if social parasites can evolve ways to subvert this system for their own ends. This chapter briefly reviews the range of tactics used by social parasites to exploit their hosts, and the communication channels and strategies used. Detailed analysis is presented of a few key systems that have been particularly well studied (Maculinea butterflies, Microdon flies, and slave-making and inquiline ants). The chapter examines general patterns of how social parasites use communication with their hosts to enhance their success, and the consequences that this has for the coevolutionary interaction between social parasites and their hosts.Less
All parasites need to evade host defences to be successful. Social parasites, however, face unique challenges and opportunities. Their hosts are particularly well defended against intruders, but their social communication systems provide an alternative means of exploitation, if social parasites can evolve ways to subvert this system for their own ends. This chapter briefly reviews the range of tactics used by social parasites to exploit their hosts, and the communication channels and strategies used. Detailed analysis is presented of a few key systems that have been particularly well studied (Maculinea butterflies, Microdon flies, and slave-making and inquiline ants). The chapter examines general patterns of how social parasites use communication with their hosts to enhance their success, and the consequences that this has for the coevolutionary interaction between social parasites and their hosts.
Shehzad Nadeem
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691147871
- eISBN:
- 9781400836697
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691147871.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter considers how place-bound practices, policies, and identities are being reconfigured by cross-border processes. Globalization has been accused of decreasing the significance of place. ...
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This chapter considers how place-bound practices, policies, and identities are being reconfigured by cross-border processes. Globalization has been accused of decreasing the significance of place. Through the diffusion of communication technologies, our experiences of place are transformed and the turnover time of capital is truncated. The chapter first explains how place is being altered by global capitalism before discussing the basic characteristics of global outsourcing and the historical and institutional context in which it takes place. It then examines the production of space in India, focusing in particular on how the country became the “world's back office.” It also looks at the emergence of consumer-oriented mimicry as an integral component of class and personal identity. The chapter argues that globalization does not substitute the dynamism of modernity for the complacent solidity of tradition nor the Occident for Orient. Its genius and mystery lay in the balancing of diametric modes.Less
This chapter considers how place-bound practices, policies, and identities are being reconfigured by cross-border processes. Globalization has been accused of decreasing the significance of place. Through the diffusion of communication technologies, our experiences of place are transformed and the turnover time of capital is truncated. The chapter first explains how place is being altered by global capitalism before discussing the basic characteristics of global outsourcing and the historical and institutional context in which it takes place. It then examines the production of space in India, focusing in particular on how the country became the “world's back office.” It also looks at the emergence of consumer-oriented mimicry as an integral component of class and personal identity. The chapter argues that globalization does not substitute the dynamism of modernity for the complacent solidity of tradition nor the Occident for Orient. Its genius and mystery lay in the balancing of diametric modes.
Ernest H. Williams
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195179293
- eISBN:
- 9780199790470
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179293.003.0004
- Subject:
- Biology, Natural History and Field Guides
To us, the most conspicuous feature of an animal is its appearance because, as visually oriented creatures, we perceive and respond quickly to varying colors and patterns. This chapter includes ...
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To us, the most conspicuous feature of an animal is its appearance because, as visually oriented creatures, we perceive and respond quickly to varying colors and patterns. This chapter includes descriptions of animal colors and patterns, including physiological explanations of what produces the colors we see and ideas about the evolution of these patterns. Some colors and patterns are not very common in nature (bioluminescence, false heads, and aggressive mimicry), but they are spectacular to see. Others (seasonal forms, countershading) are common but subtle, and those having to do with deception (eyespots, camouflage) can be remarkable. Taken together, these appearances suggest that people are not the only living creatures responding strongly to what can be seen; clearly, vision is very important to many animals.Less
To us, the most conspicuous feature of an animal is its appearance because, as visually oriented creatures, we perceive and respond quickly to varying colors and patterns. This chapter includes descriptions of animal colors and patterns, including physiological explanations of what produces the colors we see and ideas about the evolution of these patterns. Some colors and patterns are not very common in nature (bioluminescence, false heads, and aggressive mimicry), but they are spectacular to see. Others (seasonal forms, countershading) are common but subtle, and those having to do with deception (eyespots, camouflage) can be remarkable. Taken together, these appearances suggest that people are not the only living creatures responding strongly to what can be seen; clearly, vision is very important to many animals.
Pat Willmer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691128610
- eISBN:
- 9781400838943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691128610.003.0023
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology
This chapter examines how flowers cheat visitors and other flowers. Pollination is not an altruistic exercise; there is a conflict of needs that makes both plants and pollinators liable to cheat to ...
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This chapter examines how flowers cheat visitors and other flowers. Pollination is not an altruistic exercise; there is a conflict of needs that makes both plants and pollinators liable to cheat to their own benefit. Deception is very common in pollination biology. For a plant, this essentially means getting pollinated and hence fertilized without giving up any reward or resources. This can commonly be achieved by resembling a rewarding species. For a visiting animal, cheating involves extracting nectar or pollen in ways that do not carry any pollen to another flower. The chapter discusses mimicry in flowers and aids to mimicry, including pseudoflowers, pseudonectar, and pseudopollen and pseudoanthers. It also looks at empty flowers as mimics and cheats before concluding with an analysis of mimicry of objects other than flowers, such as reproductive mimicry of brood sites and potential mates (pseudocopulation).Less
This chapter examines how flowers cheat visitors and other flowers. Pollination is not an altruistic exercise; there is a conflict of needs that makes both plants and pollinators liable to cheat to their own benefit. Deception is very common in pollination biology. For a plant, this essentially means getting pollinated and hence fertilized without giving up any reward or resources. This can commonly be achieved by resembling a rewarding species. For a visiting animal, cheating involves extracting nectar or pollen in ways that do not carry any pollen to another flower. The chapter discusses mimicry in flowers and aids to mimicry, including pseudoflowers, pseudonectar, and pseudopollen and pseudoanthers. It also looks at empty flowers as mimics and cheats before concluding with an analysis of mimicry of objects other than flowers, such as reproductive mimicry of brood sites and potential mates (pseudocopulation).
Graeme D. Ruxton, Thomas N. Sherratt, and Michael P. Speed
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198528609
- eISBN:
- 9780191713392
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528609.003.0010
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology
The individuals of a population using an aposematic signal must pay a mortality cost during the period when predators are educated about the signal. The per-capita cost could be reduced if two or ...
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The individuals of a population using an aposematic signal must pay a mortality cost during the period when predators are educated about the signal. The per-capita cost could be reduced if two or more defended species shared the same signal. This is the basis of Mullerian mimicry. This chapter examines the history, theory, and empirical evidence for this phenomenon, and identifies the outstanding questions and controversies in Mullerian mimicry.Less
The individuals of a population using an aposematic signal must pay a mortality cost during the period when predators are educated about the signal. The per-capita cost could be reduced if two or more defended species shared the same signal. This is the basis of Mullerian mimicry. This chapter examines the history, theory, and empirical evidence for this phenomenon, and identifies the outstanding questions and controversies in Mullerian mimicry.
Emily Greenwood
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199212989
- eISBN:
- 9780191594205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199212989.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter undertakes a reading of the classical allusions in V. S. Naipaul's novel The Mimic Men (1967), a novel which is often interpreted as Naipaul's verdict on the mimic dependency of ...
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This chapter undertakes a reading of the classical allusions in V. S. Naipaul's novel The Mimic Men (1967), a novel which is often interpreted as Naipaul's verdict on the mimic dependency of (post‐)colonial societies. Emily Greenwood argues that Naipaul uses classical allusions to show that not only were the British in the Caribbean themselves mimics of the cultures of Greece and Rome, but also that the presence of mimicry in these very cultures reveals the absurdity of the appropriation of the civilizations of Greece and Rome in the service of colonial mythmaking. As a specific example, the chapter examines Naipaul's ironizing use of a famous phrase from Virgil's Aeneid.Less
This chapter undertakes a reading of the classical allusions in V. S. Naipaul's novel The Mimic Men (1967), a novel which is often interpreted as Naipaul's verdict on the mimic dependency of (post‐)colonial societies. Emily Greenwood argues that Naipaul uses classical allusions to show that not only were the British in the Caribbean themselves mimics of the cultures of Greece and Rome, but also that the presence of mimicry in these very cultures reveals the absurdity of the appropriation of the civilizations of Greece and Rome in the service of colonial mythmaking. As a specific example, the chapter examines Naipaul's ironizing use of a famous phrase from Virgil's Aeneid.
Sophie Ratcliffe
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199239870
- eISBN:
- 9780191716799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239870.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter examines Browning's dramatic monologues in the light of his ideas about sympathy and theology, and his debt to Schleirmacher. Browning's poetry has been conventionally read as ...
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This chapter examines Browning's dramatic monologues in the light of his ideas about sympathy and theology, and his debt to Schleirmacher. Browning's poetry has been conventionally read as encouraging readers to sympathise with his fictional protagonists. Chapter 2 demonstrates that he complicates the fact of sympathizing, and presents writers, readers and protagonists as mimics and parodists, rather than true sympathizers. The chapter concludes with a close reading of ‘Caliban Upon Setebos’, demonstrating the relationship between these acts of failed sympathy, or mimicry, and Browning's belief in the incarnation.Less
This chapter examines Browning's dramatic monologues in the light of his ideas about sympathy and theology, and his debt to Schleirmacher. Browning's poetry has been conventionally read as encouraging readers to sympathise with his fictional protagonists. Chapter 2 demonstrates that he complicates the fact of sympathizing, and presents writers, readers and protagonists as mimics and parodists, rather than true sympathizers. The chapter concludes with a close reading of ‘Caliban Upon Setebos’, demonstrating the relationship between these acts of failed sympathy, or mimicry, and Browning's belief in the incarnation.
Martha Feldman and Judith T. Zeitlin (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226656397
- eISBN:
- 9780226656427
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226656427.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Performing Practice/Studies
The Voice as Something More starts from the paradox that voices nowadays are caught up in fundamentally different realms of discourse, practice, and culture: between sounding and nonsounding, ...
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The Voice as Something More starts from the paradox that voices nowadays are caught up in fundamentally different realms of discourse, practice, and culture: between sounding and nonsounding, material and nonmaterial, literal and metaphorical. It tackles this paradox by looking at voice as both object of desire and material object. Using Mladen Dolar’s influential A Voice and Nothing More as a starting point, The Voice as Something More reorients Dolar’s psychoanalytic approach around the material dimensions of voices—their physicality and timbre, the fleshiness of their mechanisms, the veils that hide them, and the devices that enhance and distort them. Throughout, the essays put the body back in voice, whether talking about sounding voices, vocal metaphors, vocal owners, and mimics, or myths of voice, gendered voices, the uncanny voice, and vocal technologies. Included is an interlude by film and sound theorist Michel Chion that reflects on the gendering of voice in the audio-logo-visual form of vowels and consonants in words on screen. Ending with a new essay by Dolar that reflects on vocal aesthetics, the echo, and various vocal paradoxes, this collection ranges from Europe and the Americas to East Asia, from the fields of classics and music to film and literature.Less
The Voice as Something More starts from the paradox that voices nowadays are caught up in fundamentally different realms of discourse, practice, and culture: between sounding and nonsounding, material and nonmaterial, literal and metaphorical. It tackles this paradox by looking at voice as both object of desire and material object. Using Mladen Dolar’s influential A Voice and Nothing More as a starting point, The Voice as Something More reorients Dolar’s psychoanalytic approach around the material dimensions of voices—their physicality and timbre, the fleshiness of their mechanisms, the veils that hide them, and the devices that enhance and distort them. Throughout, the essays put the body back in voice, whether talking about sounding voices, vocal metaphors, vocal owners, and mimics, or myths of voice, gendered voices, the uncanny voice, and vocal technologies. Included is an interlude by film and sound theorist Michel Chion that reflects on the gendering of voice in the audio-logo-visual form of vowels and consonants in words on screen. Ending with a new essay by Dolar that reflects on vocal aesthetics, the echo, and various vocal paradoxes, this collection ranges from Europe and the Americas to East Asia, from the fields of classics and music to film and literature.
Steven Connor
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198184331
- eISBN:
- 9780191674204
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198184331.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Charles Mathews, a long-established comic actor, had first presented his one man show in London in 1818. The show was strung loosely together around a series of recitations, dialogues, sketches, and ...
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Charles Mathews, a long-established comic actor, had first presented his one man show in London in 1818. The show was strung loosely together around a series of recitations, dialogues, sketches, and songs, all of them performed by Mathews himself. The governing structure of the evening’s entertainment was usually that of a journey, or in later years of a journey through Mathews’s own reminiscences. When Alexandre Vattemare began performing his Adventures of a Ventriloquist, Mathews had just opened with The Youthful Days of Mr Mathews, an entertainment organized around Mathews’s personal reminiscences of various comic types and incidents. Mathews supplemented his highly-developed powers of mimicry with ventriloquism, a skill which he had first acquired while working with a theatrical company in Swansea between 1795 and 1797. Ventriloquism featured most often in the ‘monopolylogue’ with which Mathews’s entertainments usually concluded after 1819.Less
Charles Mathews, a long-established comic actor, had first presented his one man show in London in 1818. The show was strung loosely together around a series of recitations, dialogues, sketches, and songs, all of them performed by Mathews himself. The governing structure of the evening’s entertainment was usually that of a journey, or in later years of a journey through Mathews’s own reminiscences. When Alexandre Vattemare began performing his Adventures of a Ventriloquist, Mathews had just opened with The Youthful Days of Mr Mathews, an entertainment organized around Mathews’s personal reminiscences of various comic types and incidents. Mathews supplemented his highly-developed powers of mimicry with ventriloquism, a skill which he had first acquired while working with a theatrical company in Swansea between 1795 and 1797. Ventriloquism featured most often in the ‘monopolylogue’ with which Mathews’s entertainments usually concluded after 1819.
Steven Connor
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198184331
- eISBN:
- 9780191674204
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198184331.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
In the year following Alexandre Vattemare’s departure from England, a young journalist called William Edward Love began touring around England and Ireland with a solo performance on the model of ...
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In the year following Alexandre Vattemare’s departure from England, a young journalist called William Edward Love began touring around England and Ireland with a solo performance on the model of Charles Mathews’s and Vattemare’s entertainments, which featured the mimicry of sounds as well as the throwing of voices. If Vattemare’s performances show the move from a display of pure sound to a more visible array of recognizable and sustained character, along with a more marked narrative line, then Love’s performances appeared, at least at the beginning of his career, to return to an earlier form of ventriloquial spectacle, one in which the illusions are both purer and also more fragmented, transitory, and unsupported by visible appearance: spurning, even scorning, the use of figures and properties he specialized in what the Dublin Morning Register called ‘phenomena…in the philosophy of sound’ rather than the arts of mimicry and caricature.Less
In the year following Alexandre Vattemare’s departure from England, a young journalist called William Edward Love began touring around England and Ireland with a solo performance on the model of Charles Mathews’s and Vattemare’s entertainments, which featured the mimicry of sounds as well as the throwing of voices. If Vattemare’s performances show the move from a display of pure sound to a more visible array of recognizable and sustained character, along with a more marked narrative line, then Love’s performances appeared, at least at the beginning of his career, to return to an earlier form of ventriloquial spectacle, one in which the illusions are both purer and also more fragmented, transitory, and unsupported by visible appearance: spurning, even scorning, the use of figures and properties he specialized in what the Dublin Morning Register called ‘phenomena…in the philosophy of sound’ rather than the arts of mimicry and caricature.
Wyatt Prunty
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195057867
- eISBN:
- 9780199855124
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195057867.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
When we mention mimicry we think “of” a thing imitated, but “of” is a middle term that both holds a thing off and holds it close. It may indicate a point or direction by which one reckons, a ...
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When we mention mimicry we think “of” a thing imitated, but “of” is a middle term that both holds a thing off and holds it close. It may indicate a point or direction by which one reckons, a derivation, a cause, the constitutive material of a thing, belonging or possession, a separation, an object of some action, the place in time of a particular action. There is both overlap and distance created by the polynomial function that “of” introduces between a subject and its object, or between an object and its copy. The relationship between the contemporary poet who employs synaposematic mimicry and the object imitated involves all these meanings. The poet’s mimicry carries these meanings the way a primitive shepherd’s notched bone was used for reckoning his sheep or the way a Mesopotamian egg-shaped envelope with clay balls inside it was used for the same purpose. At first mimicry carries us through an ordinal sequence of particulars; taken in the aggregate, however, it becomes a cardinal summary that is both inclusive and separative. This chapter first takes Nemerov’s poems on their own terms, and then considers how by synaposematism and other modes of thought they investigate, separate, deflect, make safe, and generate wholeness.Less
When we mention mimicry we think “of” a thing imitated, but “of” is a middle term that both holds a thing off and holds it close. It may indicate a point or direction by which one reckons, a derivation, a cause, the constitutive material of a thing, belonging or possession, a separation, an object of some action, the place in time of a particular action. There is both overlap and distance created by the polynomial function that “of” introduces between a subject and its object, or between an object and its copy. The relationship between the contemporary poet who employs synaposematic mimicry and the object imitated involves all these meanings. The poet’s mimicry carries these meanings the way a primitive shepherd’s notched bone was used for reckoning his sheep or the way a Mesopotamian egg-shaped envelope with clay balls inside it was used for the same purpose. At first mimicry carries us through an ordinal sequence of particulars; taken in the aggregate, however, it becomes a cardinal summary that is both inclusive and separative. This chapter first takes Nemerov’s poems on their own terms, and then considers how by synaposematism and other modes of thought they investigate, separate, deflect, make safe, and generate wholeness.
Lucy Newlyn
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198187110
- eISBN:
- 9780191674631
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187110.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
Samuel Taylor Coleridge qualifies similarity by recapitulating difference, to dispel the impression of absolute repetition or mimicry conveyed by the idea of the double. The distinction between ...
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge qualifies similarity by recapitulating difference, to dispel the impression of absolute repetition or mimicry conveyed by the idea of the double. The distinction between ‘likeness’ and ‘identity’ was crucial to Coleridge, who thereby introduced an important qualification into his Protean analogy by suggesting that endless modifications of identity were not incompatible with an underlying stability of self. In this discourse, reading was figured as sympathetic completion; and the fear of fragmentation was replaced by a range of rhetorical and formal strategies designed precisely to accentuate the contingency and openness of writing. That the second model of reception should have coexisted alongside its opposite bears witness, once again, to the paradox implicit in the Romantic concept of genius. An insight into the ways in which this paradox underpinned hermeneutics helps to understand the survival of a dual focus at the centre of Romantic literary theory and its subsequent reception.Less
Samuel Taylor Coleridge qualifies similarity by recapitulating difference, to dispel the impression of absolute repetition or mimicry conveyed by the idea of the double. The distinction between ‘likeness’ and ‘identity’ was crucial to Coleridge, who thereby introduced an important qualification into his Protean analogy by suggesting that endless modifications of identity were not incompatible with an underlying stability of self. In this discourse, reading was figured as sympathetic completion; and the fear of fragmentation was replaced by a range of rhetorical and formal strategies designed precisely to accentuate the contingency and openness of writing. That the second model of reception should have coexisted alongside its opposite bears witness, once again, to the paradox implicit in the Romantic concept of genius. An insight into the ways in which this paradox underpinned hermeneutics helps to understand the survival of a dual focus at the centre of Romantic literary theory and its subsequent reception.
Michael Peppard
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199753703
- eISBN:
- 9780199914432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753703.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
Chapter 4 demonstrates the ways in which Mark's image of Jesus and his followers interacts with that of the Roman emperor and the imperial family. Reading the baptism of Jesus through the lens of ...
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Chapter 4 demonstrates the ways in which Mark's image of Jesus and his followers interacts with that of the Roman emperor and the imperial family. Reading the baptism of Jesus through the lens of imperial ideology encourages one to hear the divine voice as an adoption, the beginning of Jesus' accession as a son and heir. The dove functions as an omen of this grace and counter‐symbol to the eagle, which was a public portent of divine favor and election in Roman culture. The adoptive relationship can be traced later in the gospel and understood to relate to the divine sonship offered by God to all people through the Spirit. The chapter further contends that the supposedly “low” connotations of such an adoption are a misconstrual of ancient evidence. Mark crafted a portrayal that was theologically coherent and also resonated in its cultural context.Less
Chapter 4 demonstrates the ways in which Mark's image of Jesus and his followers interacts with that of the Roman emperor and the imperial family. Reading the baptism of Jesus through the lens of imperial ideology encourages one to hear the divine voice as an adoption, the beginning of Jesus' accession as a son and heir. The dove functions as an omen of this grace and counter‐symbol to the eagle, which was a public portent of divine favor and election in Roman culture. The adoptive relationship can be traced later in the gospel and understood to relate to the divine sonship offered by God to all people through the Spirit. The chapter further contends that the supposedly “low” connotations of such an adoption are a misconstrual of ancient evidence. Mark crafted a portrayal that was theologically coherent and also resonated in its cultural context.
Steven D. Johnson and Florian P. Schiestl
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198732693
- eISBN:
- 9780191796975
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198732693.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Plant Sciences and Forestry, Ecology
This chapter focuses on the historical development of ideas about mimicry, including the discovery of floral mimicry, and provides an overview of the key concepts in mimicry research. It defines ...
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This chapter focuses on the historical development of ideas about mimicry, including the discovery of floral mimicry, and provides an overview of the key concepts in mimicry research. It defines terms used in mimicry as used throughout the book. The mimicry concepts described include adaptive resemblance, cognitive misclassification of mimics by operators, the differences between convergent and advergent evolution, and the roles of honest signals and reliable cues in model organisms. This chapter also clarifies concepts relating to imperfect and accurate mimicry, as well as frequency dependence. The applicability of the concepts of Batesian and Müllerian mimicry to pollination systems is discussed.Less
This chapter focuses on the historical development of ideas about mimicry, including the discovery of floral mimicry, and provides an overview of the key concepts in mimicry research. It defines terms used in mimicry as used throughout the book. The mimicry concepts described include adaptive resemblance, cognitive misclassification of mimics by operators, the differences between convergent and advergent evolution, and the roles of honest signals and reliable cues in model organisms. This chapter also clarifies concepts relating to imperfect and accurate mimicry, as well as frequency dependence. The applicability of the concepts of Batesian and Müllerian mimicry to pollination systems is discussed.
Michael Taussig
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780226684581
- eISBN:
- 9780226698700
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226698700.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
For centuries, humans have excelled at mimicking nature in order to exploit it. Now, with the existential threat of global climate change on the horizon, the ever-provocative Michael Taussig asks ...
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For centuries, humans have excelled at mimicking nature in order to exploit it. Now, with the existential threat of global climate change on the horizon, the ever-provocative Michael Taussig asks what function a newly invigorated mimetic faculty might exert along with such change. Mastery of Non-Mastery in the Age of Meltdown is not solely a reflection on our condition but also a theoretical effort to reckon with the impulses that have fed our relentless ambition for dominance over nature. Taussig seeks to move us away from the manipulation of nature and reorient us to different metaphors and sources of inspiration to develop a new ethical stance toward the world. His ultimate goal is to undo his readers’ sense of control and engender what he calls “mastery of non-mastery.” This unique book developed out of Taussig’s work with peasant agriculture and his artistic practice, which brings performance art together with aspects of ritual. Through immersive meditations on Walter Benjamin, D. H. Lawrence, Emerson, Bataille, and Proust, Taussig grapples with the possibility of collapse and with the responsibility we bear for it.Less
For centuries, humans have excelled at mimicking nature in order to exploit it. Now, with the existential threat of global climate change on the horizon, the ever-provocative Michael Taussig asks what function a newly invigorated mimetic faculty might exert along with such change. Mastery of Non-Mastery in the Age of Meltdown is not solely a reflection on our condition but also a theoretical effort to reckon with the impulses that have fed our relentless ambition for dominance over nature. Taussig seeks to move us away from the manipulation of nature and reorient us to different metaphors and sources of inspiration to develop a new ethical stance toward the world. His ultimate goal is to undo his readers’ sense of control and engender what he calls “mastery of non-mastery.” This unique book developed out of Taussig’s work with peasant agriculture and his artistic practice, which brings performance art together with aspects of ritual. Through immersive meditations on Walter Benjamin, D. H. Lawrence, Emerson, Bataille, and Proust, Taussig grapples with the possibility of collapse and with the responsibility we bear for it.
