Born out of an ERC-funded project, the theory of imitation informing homo mimeticus aims to open up a transdisciplinary field of studies called mimetic studies. In this presentation, Nidesh Lawtoo takes a step back to recall how the mimetic turn begins with stepping back, genealogically, to influential theorists of imitation—from René Girard's mimetic theory to Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe's deconstruction of mimesis, read in the company of Plato, Nietzsche, Bataille, Arendt, Morin, and others—who, from different perspectives, took mimesis beyond realism in the past century. This step back becomes then the occasion for introducing new concepts—​mimetic pathos, patho(-)logies, hypermimesis, among others—​vital to tracing and retracing the contemporary masks of mimesis in an age haunted by (new) fascist phantoms, contagious affects, and AI simulations. 

Nidesh Lawtoo is professor of modern and contemporary European literature and culture at Leiden university and PI of Homo Mimeticus. Located at the juncture of philosophy, literature, and politics, his work aims to rethink mimesis in light of present challenges. Recent books include, Homo Mimeticus: A New Theory of Imitation (2022), Violence and the Oedipal Unconscious (2023) and Violence and the Mimetic Unconscious (2023). Homo Mimeticus II: Re-Turns to Mimesis is forthcoming with Leuven UP in 2024.