Una sconfinata infatuazione : Firenze e la Toscana nelle metamorfosi della cultura anglo-americana : 1861-1915 : atti del convegno internazionale di studi

The essay discusses the complexities of mimetic portraiture from a theoretical point of view. The issue of “recognizing” the portrayed subject is central to any mimetic idea of a portrait, but recognition itself does not always conform to socially granted cognitive paths of mimesis. Gertrude Stein, writer and cognitive scientist (after her intense exposure to the teachings of William James) re-maps the conventions on which recognition hinges, not only in relation to portraiture but in relation to a perceptive innovative dynamic of space, the space where any subject is perforce located.