Recent work in psychology has postulated a role for imitation in such diverse aspects of cognition and human development as self-recognition, acquisition of linguistic and moral systems, and even Theory of Mind—or how we learn that other people have minds that work similarly to our own. Current theories of cultural evolution in anthropology are based largely upon imitation.1 While there are still active arguments on the exact role of imitation and the extent of its influence on human development—much of them depending on how broadly the term is defined—it is becoming increasingly clear that imitation is a fundamental aspect of the human mind and therefore influences the products of that mind, including literature (in the broad sense of any linguistic, structured artifact) and the other arts.
This conclusion should be of great moment to the study of any sort of artistic work, not only because, for instance, literature is...