Mimesis teorizzata e mimesis realizzata nel Sofista platonico

This paper aims at discussing Platonic examples of mimesis in the Sophist, by trying to identify the mimetic figures that show to the reader, in a vivid way, what the characters of the dialogue abstractly theorize. All Platonic dialogues are mimetic, but the Sophist is a privileged point of observation of their “mimeticity” because in the Sophist one of the characters explains what mimesis is, how it works. In addition, such a character does not simply explain this abstractly, but puts mimetic figures in front of the eyes of his interlocutor, just as Plato does with his reader. The question of difference is linked to that of mimesis and plays a crucial role in the Sophist. This question, too, is not only discussed at length but is also presented in front of the eyes of the reader thanks to the figure of the Eleatic Stranger who embodies the difference and makes it visible, just as the Sophist makes visible the misleading nature of not-being. This dialogue, with the aporiai of diairesis, stages the difficulty of drawing the figure of the sophist, who is never staged as a character, but is always faced as a problem.