Il mimetismo secondo Caillois. Primi appunti per un’indagine

Abstract

Roger Caillois (1913-1978) dedicated some books – in particolar in the 1960s Méduse et Cie and Le mimétisme animal – to a particular interpretation of animal mimi-cry. In these texts it is possible to find two lines of argument. The first elaborates a con-ception of the universe as an immanent and finite natural unity, in which forms and mo-dels are recurrent, and in which a spontaneous and autonomous aesthetic tendency is at work. The second rejects any explanation based on the search for utiliy and advantage, and affirms the absolute reality of interspecific imitation. Mimicry is thus associated with notions such as expenditure, fascination and the search for invisibilità a san end in itself. This paper aims to highlight some critical issues inherent in this conception of mimicry, and to promote the recognition of an implicit meaning in the economy of rela-tionships between species in the explanation of this fact.