Simulacrum

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Paul Hegarty (University of Nottingham)

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Ed. by Graham Allen, University College Cork
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University)

Domains

Cultural Studies
Theory, Concept, Approach (social science)

Dates

Date of occurrence -400

Places

Ancient Greece (Location)

The simulacrum is a form of copy that imitates falsely, that claims to be real rather than a representation, and thus threatens the act of representation itself. The notion of the simulacrum has thus never been far from judgements about good and evil: it is the product of deception, often for gain. Such is the sense we get from Plato in The Sophist and in The Republic where he reflects on the relation of the real to representation, notably in the allegory of the cave, where, despite its difficulties, he never abandons the desirability of truth, and reflection on how we share truth or thoughts about it. At the other end of the historical spectrum we have Jean Baudrillard who has recently made much of the term, and …

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2505 words

Citation: Hegarty, Paul. "Simulacrum". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 January 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1016, accessed 15 April 2025.]