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Forgeries are an omnipresent part of our culture. They are closely related to historically and culturally informed ideas of authenticity, legality, authorship, creativity, tradition and innovation. Based on the concept of mimesis, the volume illustrates that forgeries are thus not to be understood as a negative copy or disgraced rip-off of an original – but as an autonomous aesthetic practice, a creative act in itself. The contributions focus on such different implementations such as faked traditions, pseudotranslations, imposters, identity theft, and hoaxes in different arts and historic contexts. Most importantly, they scrutinize the bonds and borders between original and forgery, and turn out their epistemic capability.

Forgeries are an omnipresent part of our culture and closely related to traditional ideas of authenticity, legality, authorship, creativity, and innovation. Based on the concept of mimesis, this volume illustrates how forgeries must be understood as autonomous aesthetic practices - creative acts in themselves - rather than as mere rip-offs of an original work of art. The proceedings bring together research from different scholarly fields. They focus on various mimetic practices such as pseudo-translations, imposters, identity theft, and hoaxes in different artistic and historic contexts. By opening up the scope of the aesthetic implications of fakes, this anthology aims to consolidate forging as an autonomous method of creation.