The Imitation of an Imitation

Robert Stahl's Imitation of Life, 1934

Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life, 1959

L'Imitation of Life, a Hell in a Handbag production

Is post-modern tragedy the imitation of an imitation of an action? (pace Aristotle)

Is it the normative condition, since life itself comprised of twice-behaved behavior? (Schechner)

Is the encounter with duplication unheimlich?

Or is this sort of repetition, as Marx would say, farce?