Nidesh Lawtoo
Nidesh Lawtoo (born 1976) is a philosopher and literary theorist who works on theories of mimesis (imitation). He is professor of Modern and Contemporary European Literature and Culture at Leiden University[1] and research professor of philosophy at KU Leuven.[2] From 2016 to 2022 he led Homo Mimeticus, a research project funded by the European Research Council.[3] His books on modernism, Joseph Conrad, fascism and imitation have been reviewed in journals including Modern Language Quarterly, The Conradian, L'Esprit Créateur and the Journal of Modern Literature, and translated into Italian, German, Spanish, French, Dutch and Portuguese.[4]
Early life and education
Lawtoo was born in 1976[5] in Italian-speaking Switzerland [6][7] and grew up in San Vittore, in the Mesolcina valley.[8][9] He studied at the University of Lausanne and received a PhD in Comparative Literature and Critical Theory from the University of Washington in 2009,[10] and in 2007–2008 held a visiting fellowship at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge.[11]
Career
Lawtoo was maître assistant at the University of Lausanne (2009–2013), a Swiss National Science Foundation visiting scholar at the Humanities Center of Johns Hopkins University (2013–2016) and assistant professor at the University of Bern (2016–2017), before joining KU Leuven.[2][10][7] There, with an ERC Starting Grant, he directed Homo Mimeticus: Theory and Criticism (2016–2022), an inter- and multidisciplinary project whose outputs include special issues of several journals.[3][7] He later became professor at Leiden University, where he gave his inaugural lecture on 14 November 2025.[1]
Research
Lawtoo's work spans modernism, critical theory, postcolonial literature, film studies and continental philosophy, with a focus on theories of mimesis.[10] He proposes a transdisciplinary field that he calls "mimetic studies"[6][12] and has described his first major book as a Nietzschean alternative to René Girard's mimetic theory.[13] His concepts include "mimetic pathos", which extends imitation beyond desire to all emotions, the "mimetic unconscious," which designates an unconscious before Freud that has imitation as a door to the psyche, and "patho(-)logy", which designates both a mimetic sickness and a critical discourse on mimetic affects.[7]
Works and reception
The Phantom of the Ego: Modernism and the Mimetic Unconscious (2013) reads Conrad, D. H. Lawrence and Georges Bataille, starting from Nietzsche, to argue that the modernist account of the unconscious anticipates contemporary findings on mimesis and subjectivity.[14] In Modern Language Quarterly, Kurt Koenigsberger praised its reconstruction of a hidden history of the mimetic unconscious but criticized its loose definition of modernism.[15] Alessandra Diazzi, reviewing the Italian edition in Enthymema, praised its treatment of the relation between mimetic theory and psychoanalysis.[16]
Conrad's Shadow: Catastrophe, Mimesis, Theory (2016) reads Conrad's novels, and later works that respond to them, through the two sides of mimesis, one pathological and one therapeutic.[17] It shared first place in the Joseph Conrad Society of America's Adam Gillon Book Award in 2018.[18] In The Conradian, Yael Levin praised the originality of its theoretical paradigms and method of presentation while noting Conrad was used as a starting point for theorization more than an end in itself.[19]
(New) Fascism: Contagion, Community, Myth (2019) applies mimetic theory to authoritarian leaders and new media, taking Donald Trump as a case study.[20] In L'Esprit Créateur, Bruno Chaouat called it a compelling reminder of the continued relevance of continental philosophy, sociology and psychoanalysis, while noting repetition and at times jargon.[21] Fabrizio Deriu, reviewing the Italian edition in Mimesis Journal, saw its main strength in its diagnosis of contemporary political communication.[7]
Violence and the Oedipal Unconscious and Violence and the Mimetic Unconscious (both 2023) trace the history of the "catharsis" hypothesis and of theories of an affective, mimetic unconscious in relation to media violence.[22][12] In Contagion, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, who wrote the foreword to (New) Fascism, agreed with Lawtoo that the medical reading of Aristotelian catharsis as purgation rests on a philological error, but argued for reading catharsis in the light of Corybantic ritual.[23]
Homo Mimeticus: A New Theory of Imitation (2022), an open-access book from Leuven University Press, proposes a theory of mimesis across philosophy, aesthetics and politics.[24] Philipp Wolf, in the Journal of Modern Literature, described it as a transdisciplinary study and singled out its attempt at a new and systematic theory of mimesis.[25] Mark Pizzato, who disclosed that he had contributed to the follow-up volume, called its definition of "mimetic studies" of crucial significance to comparative literature while raising critical questions.[26] Iván Sanz Marcos reviewed the Spanish edition in Daimon.[27] Two edited follow-up volumes, Homo Mimeticus II (2024) and III (2025), were published by the same press.[28][29]
Selected works
- The Phantom of the Ego: Modernism and the Mimetic Unconscious (Michigan State University Press, 2013)
- Conrad's Shadow: Catastrophe, Mimesis, Theory (Michigan State University Press, 2016)
- (New) Fascism: Contagion, Community, Myth (Michigan State University Press, 2019)
- Homo Mimeticus: A New Theory of Imitation (Leuven University Press, 2022)
- Violence and the Oedipal Unconscious and Violence and the Mimetic Unconscious (Michigan State University Press, 2023)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Dodo Through the Looking-Glass: A Mirror for Modern and Contemporary Culture". Leiden University. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Team". Homo Mimeticus. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Homo Mimeticus: Theory and Criticism". CORDIS – EU research results. European Commission. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ "Nidesh Lawtoo: Publications". Leiden University. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ "Nidesh Lawtoo, autor de '(New) Fascism': «Trump se forjó una imagen de poder falocéntrico y eso funciona muy bien en tiempos de crisis»". eldiario.es (in español). Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Antonelli, Emanuele (30 July 2024). "Homo mimeticus controcorrente" [Homo mimeticus against the current]. Le parole e le cose² (in italiano). Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Deriu, Fabrizio (2020). "Inconscio mimetico e "attori signori": Sul progetto di ricerca HOM: Homo Mimeticus" [The mimetic unconscious and "actors as masters": On the research project HOM: Homo Mimeticus]. Mimesis Journal (in italiano). 9 (2): 153–162. doi:10.4000/mimesis.2167.
- ↑ Redazione (15 October 2025). "Grono – Incontro con Nidesh Lawtoo" [Grono – Meeting with Nidesh Lawtoo]. Il Moesano (in italiano). Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ "L'uomo che imita". Voci del Grigioni italiano (in italiano). RSI Rete Uno. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Nidesh Lawtoo". Cinema & Media Studies, University of Washington. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ "Nidesh Lawtoo". Leiden University. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Violence and the Mimetic Unconscious, Volume 2". Michigan State University Press. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ Keohane, Kieran (2022). "An Interview with Nidesh Lawtoo, University of Leuven". Irish Journal of Sociology: 1–5. doi:10.1177/07916035221076378.
- ↑ "The Phantom of the Ego: Modernism and the Mimetic Unconscious". Michigan State University Press. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ Koenigsberger, Kurt (December 2015). "The Phantom of the Ego: Modernism and the Mimetic Unconscious". Modern Language Quarterly. 76 (4): 531–533. doi:10.1215/00267929-3152873., p. 532.
- ↑ Diazzi, Alessandra (2018). "Recensione a Il fantasma dell'io: la massa e l'inconscio mimetico di Nidesh Lawtoo" [Review of Il fantasma dell'io: la massa e l'inconscio mimetico by Nidesh Lawtoo]. Enthymema (in italiano) (22): 259–262. doi:10.13130/2037-2426/11069.
- ↑ "Conrad's Shadow: Catastrophe, Mimesis, Theory". Michigan State University Press. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ "Awards". Joseph Conrad Society of America. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ Levin, Yael (2018). "Nidesh Lawtoo, Conrad's Shadow: Catastrophe, Mimesis, Theory". The Conradian. 43 (1). Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ "(New) Fascism: Contagion, Community, Myth". Michigan State University Press. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ Chaouat, Bruno (Winter 2021). "Nidesh Lawtoo. (New) Fascism: Contagion, Community, Myth". L'Esprit Créateur. 61 (4): 171–172.
- ↑ "Violence and the Oedipal Unconscious". Michigan State University Press. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ Borch-Jacobsen, Mikkel (2026). "Aristotle with the Corybants". Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture. 33: 35–68. doi:10.14321/contagion.33.0035., pp. 47, 55–57.
- ↑ "Homo Mimeticus: A New Theory of Imitation". Leuven University Press. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ Wolf, Philipp (Fall 2024). "Review of Homo Mimeticus: A New Theory of Imitation". Journal of Modern Literature. 48 (1): 178–190. doi:10.2979/jml.00065.
- ↑ Pizzato, Mark (December 2025). "Review of Homo Mimeticus: A New Theory of Imitation". MLN. 140 (5): 1285–1289. doi:10.1353/mln.2025.a981051., pp. 1285, 1287, 1289.
- ↑ Sanz Marcos, Iván. "Review of Homo mimeticus. Una nueva teoría de la imitación". Daimon. Revista Internacional de Filosofía (in español). forthcoming. ISSN 1989-4651. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ "Homo Mimeticus II: Re-Turns to Mimesis". Leuven University Press. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ "Homo Mimeticus III: Plasticity, Mimesis and Metamorphosis with Catherine Malabou". Leuven University Press. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
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