The paper focuses on the mirror as a
metaphor in the Marxist and structuralist
paradigm by means of which
contradictory concepts of literature in
terms of its mimetic activity crystallize.
The term mimetic reflection was
in circulation in the Soviet Union at
that time as one of the key concepts of
the dogmatic Marxist-Leninist aesthetics
and especially of Todor Pavlov’s theory
of reflection, in which literature is
seen as an authentic reflection of reality.
A detachment of reflection theory
can be traced in the works of Lotman
and Kristeva. In their theoretical works
the mirror functions as a metaphor
for intertextuality, and self-reflexivity
as the ability of literature to refer to
its own techniques, its own process of
creation and its own fictional status.
Thus, the article outlines two mimetic
types: authentic mimesis, represented
by Pavlov’s theory, and on the other
side, heterogeneous creative mimesis,
developed by Lotman’s text within a
text structure and Kristeva’s genotext in
merging Jakobson and Bakhtin’s legacy.
