This volume is an overview of the history and theory of the concept of similarity. It argues that the concept of similarity offers a new, alternative approach in culture studies, as compared to the hitherto dominant paradigm of difference. The volume explores the theoretical range of the concept of similarity in historical and systematic terms and its relation to ideas like mimesis, analogy, assimilation, mimicry and imitation. It also studies important and exemplary interpretations of similarity in literature, anthropology, philosophy and cultural studies.

Prescient and interdisciplinary, the volume will be a handy guide to scholars and researchers of cultural theory, literature, philosophy and politics.

Dorothee Kimmich is a Professor for German and Cultural Theory Current at University of Tübingen, Germany.