The Restricted Abyss: Nine Problems in the Theory of Mise en Abyme
1987; Duke University Press; Volume: 8; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/1773044
ISSN1527-5507
Autores Tópico(s)Narrative Theory and Analysis
ResumoThis is a theoretical essay in poetics. By theoretical, I mean that I shall not offer very extensive illustration by concrete examples of the principles under discussion. By descriptive I mean that, in examining the concept of mise en abyme, my aim is to help make it both a sharper and more flexible tool for the description of narrative texts. To succeed in this task I shall have to do my best to stay clear of the headier philosophical and poetic implications of the abysmal metaphor. Such implications inform the large body of the experimental or postmodern or nouveau or nouveau nouveau novel which has posed such a massive challenge to traditional narrative and representational conventions especially in the last few decades. In this essay, however, I am chiefly (but not exclusively) interested in the possible use of misc en abyme as a term denoting a specific figure in narrative fiction which I would characterize very broadly as mimetic. What I mean by this is fiction which ostensibly respects our most prevalent beliefs about empirical reality, especially those concerning temporality and the conditions of human knowledge. Conventional respect for such beliefs is reflected in narrative texts by a concern to keep their diegetic levels distinguishable. The best general account of the structure and functioning of the narrative text is still Gerard Genette's (with the emendations of able followers such as Mieke Bal and Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan). It is in the overall framework of such a theory that I would like to inscribe my comments on misc en abyme. This expression, whose application to literature and visual art was first suggested by Andre Gide in a diary entry from 1893, has enjoyed
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