Acknowledgments
This book would never have materialized without the help and encouragement of
many people. When it was still in the stage of a Ph.D. dissertation, one of my
main interlocutors was Geert Bekaert, whose essay on imitation laid the founda-
tion for my interest in mimesis. To my other advisor, André Loeckx, I owe special
thanks, not only for his institutional support, but also for his continued presence
as my most challenging and demanding intellectual sparring partner. Herman
Neuckermans I thank for the opportunity he gave me to do research at the
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
In an initial stage of my investigations, I enjoyed the hospitality of Michael
Müller in Bremen, who was a very helpful guide for studying the work of Walter
Benjamin. I have learned a lot from discussions with friends, among whom I
should mention Christine Delhaye, Bart Verschaffel, Lieven de Cauter, and Rudi
Laermans. My coeditors of the Dutch Benjamin Journaalcontributed, through
their comments and criticisms, to the chapters on Benjamin and Adorno: René
Boomkens, Ineke van der Burg, Koen Geldof, Ton Groeneweg, Paul Koopman,
Michel van Nieuwstadt, and the late Wil van Gerwen, who passed away much too
early.
In 1991 and 1992 I had the opportunity to test some of the thoughts devel-
oped in this book by exposing myself to the scrutiny of the students in the MIT
program on History, Theory, and Criticism. I wish to thank Stanford Anderson for
his invitation, David Friedman for his coaching, and Sibel Bozdogan for her friend-
ship and support. Together with the students they made my months at MIT a very
worthwhile experience. The postdoctoral fellowship I received from the Getty
Grant Program enabled me to transform a dissertation into a book. During that
process much was added and many things changed; in particular the case study
on New Babylon was elaborated, facilitated by the generous help of Constant.
For encouraging me all the while and pushing me to finalize the manuscript,
I wish to thank Mark Wigley, Michael Hays, Beatriz Colomina, and Richard Plunz.
Donald Gardner was invaluable as a translator. Whatever awkward formulations
survived in the final text are completely my own responsibility.
I am grateful to Roger Conover for his confidence in my ability to write this
book, to Julie Grimaldi for her continuous help with the whole process, to Mitch
Evich and Matthew Abbate for their very careful and consistent editing, and to
Jim McWethy for his design work.
I dedicate the book to my children Robbe, An, and Anskim Goris, who lived
with me through all the difficulties and gratifications of its coming-into-being.