Wordsmith.org: the magic of words


A.Word.A.Day

About | Media | Search | Contact  


Home

Today's Word

Subscribe

Archives



Oct 12, 2017
This week’s theme
There’s a word for it

This week’s words
acarophobia
exclosure
untrack
mise en abyme
zetetic

mise en abyme
Bookmark and Share Facebook Twitter Digg MySpace Bookmark and Share
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

mise en abyme

PRONUNCIATION:
(mee-zan-nah-BEEM)

MEANING:
noun: Self-reflection in a literary work, a work of art, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French mise en abyme/abîme (placed into abyss). Originally, the term applied to heraldic shields in which a smaller shield was put into the center of the shield. Earliest documented use: 1968.

NOTES:
Some examples are play within a play (Hamlet), story within a story, film within a film, dream within a dream, the placement of a small copy of a work within itself, infinite reflection between two facing mirrors, etc.

USAGE:
“The critics haven’t paid attention enough to its self-conscious narrator. It takes you from mise en abyme to mise en abyme.”
Arturo Fontaine Talavera (translator Megan McDowell); La Vida Doble; Yale University Press; 2013.

“There’s a shot that pops up again and again in attempts to document the Church of Scientology: two people holding cameras, filming each other, caught in a reconnaissance stalemate. It’s a cinematographic mise en abyme. The surveillance and counter-surveillance recurs in an infinite loop, feeding a sinister sense of paranoia.”
John Semley; In L. Ron We Trust; Maclean’s (Toronto, Canada); May 2, 2016.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Someone is Hindu, someone is Muslim, someone is Christian / Everyone is hell-bent on not becoming a human being. -Nida Fazli, poet (12 Oct 1938-2016)

We need your help

Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere

Donate

Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise

© 1994-2024 Wordsmith