‘Mirroring’ Literature through Ages

Abstract

Many writers through their works serve our enduring fascination with reflection, the image that is at once the same, and not the same, as ourselves. Alberti, a renaissance master builder and art theorist, was of the opinion that the mirror had been the first artist and had to be seen as the beginning of art since it “depicted” something. As an ancient and traditional subject, the mirror has a prominent position in the creation and the formulation of aesthetics. In modern art a mirror can assume diverse symbolical meanings. Surrealism uses the reality created by the mirror image as it was superior to everyday reality. This paper ‘Mirroring Literature through Ages’ is an attempt to comprehend the implications of the idea of mirror in literature.