Robert Alter, Transparent Things, Mimesis, Metafiction

As I was searching for material written about Transparent Things I stumbled upon Motives for Fiction by Robert Alter. Several pages are devoted to Transparent Things and self-conscious writing. He also talks about mimesis (A term that causes flashbacks of my Literary Criticism class with Dr. Beehler) def. of mimesis: 

-The imitation or representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially human actions, in literature and art.
-basic theoretical principle in the creation of art. The word is Greek and means "imitation" (though in the sense of "re-presentation" rather than of "copying"). Plato and Aristotle spoke of mimesis as the re-presentation of nature. According to Plato, all artistic creation is a form of imitation: that which really exists (in the "world of ideas") is a type created by God; the concrete things man perceives in his existence are shadowy representations of this ideal type.
Therefore, the painter, the tragedian, and the musician are imitators of an imitation, twice removed from the truth. Aristotle, speaking of tragedy, stressed the point that it was an "imitation of an action"-that of a man falling from a higher to a lower estate. Shakespeare, in Hamlet's speech to the actors, referred to the purpose of playing as being " . . . to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature." Thus, an artist, by skillfully selecting and presenting his material, may purposefully seek to "imitate" the action of life.

Mimesis works very well for Transparent Things if Hugh Person is supposed to "imitate" YOU Person, like an Everyman character, who is supposed to represent us, the audience. Which is an imitation of an imitation of the ideal, if I'm not mistaken?

Alter also spends several pages talking about the self-conscious writing in Transparent Things and the relationship between reader and writer. As we said in class Alter mentions Baron R. the writer to be a "satirically distorted self-portrait" of Nabokov.
And Alter notices something I did not, Nabokov's annagrammic signature Adam von Labrikov, a minor character in Mr. R's novel (Alter 15).
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Self-conscious writing is an interesting way to explore fiction writing, playing with the relationship between author and reader. This is a style of writing we could place in a subcategory, or rather a device of fiction which is: Metafiction, which I might describe as a sort of writing technique of the main genre of Fiction blurring the lines between reality and fiction through self-conscious writing. However my understanding of the term is not absolute.
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I believe that through exploring the relationship between author and reader, Nabokov is exploring the relationship between fiction and "reality," while he explores the realm of consciousness versus the unconscious, art versus life, etc. Alter explores this theme thoroughly in part of his novel which you can read if you click the above link.


This is just a blog to explore some ideas. I feel as if I'm stumbling around in the dark a bit when I try to talk about Transparent Things, but hopefully a second reading and a second day of class will help. Too bad there is only one more day of discussion.