Mise en abyme (in literature and other media)

Not to be confused with metalepsis or meta-reference.

Mise en abyme (also mise-en-abîme, French "to put in the abyss", [miːz ɒn əˈbɪːm] is a transgeneric and transmedial phenomenon, which can occur in all literary genres, in comics, films, paintings and other media. It is a form of similarity and/or repetition (hence a variant of self-reference) occurring within works of arts and the media. Mise en abyme presupposes the occurrence of at least two hierarchically different levels. It appears on a subordinate level by 'mirroring' (content or formal) elements of a superior level.

‘Mirroring’ can mean the repetition of the same, similarity or even to a certain extent contrast. The elements thus ‘mirrored’ can refer to form (e.g. a painting is mirrored within a painting) or content (e.g. a theme occurring on different levels).

Mise en abyme can be differentiated according to its quantitative, qualitative and functional features. For instance, ‘mirroring’ can occur once, several times (on a lower and yet on a lower and so on level) or (theoretically) an infinite amount of times (as in the reflection of an object between two mirrors, which creates the impression of a visual abyss). Further, mise en abyme can either be partial or complete (i.e. mirror parts or the entirety of the superior level) and probable, improbable or paradoxical. It can contribute to the understanding of a work, or lay bare its artificiality.

History

Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom

The term mise en abyme derives from heraldry. It describes the appearance of a smaller shield in the centre of a larger one (see for example the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom). André Gide, in an 1893 entry into his journal, was the first to write about mise en abyme in connection with describing self-reflexive embeddings in various forms of art. The term enters the lexicon through Claude-Edmonde Magny who described the aesthetic effects of the device. Jean Ricardou developed the concept further by outlining some of its functions. On the one hand it may confuse and disrupt the work in question, but on the other hand it may enhance understanding e.g. by pointing out the work’s true meaning or intention. Lucien Dällenbach continues the research in a magisterial study by classifying and describing various forms and functions of mise en abyme.

Examples

As mentioned before mise en abyme is not restricted to one specific kind of literature or art. The recursive appearance of a novel within a novel, a play within a play, a picture within a picture, or a film within a film form mises en abyme that can have numerous different effects on the perception and understanding of the literary text or work of art.

Marriage à-la-Mode 4: The Toilette by William Hogarth (1697-1764)

Painting: Marriage à-la mode 4: The Toilette by William Hogarth

Mariage à-la-Mode (1743–45) is a narrative series of six socially and morally critical paintings by William Hogarth. In the fourth painting, Mariage à-la-Mode 4: The Toilette, an example of mise en abyme can be found. The man on the right is not the woman’s husband, however they are clearly flirting and are possibly arranging a meeting at night. The paintings above their heads (paintings within a painting!) depict sexual scenes, which foreshadow what is going to happen.

Drama: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Another example for mise en abyme would be employing a novel within a novel, or a play within a play. In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet the title character stages a play within the play (“The Murder of Gonzago”) to find out whether his uncle is really the murderer of his father (as the ghost of Hamlet’s father has told him). It is not only a formal mirroring of a theatrical situation (a play within a play) but also a mirroring of a content element, namely of what supposedly had happened in the pre-history. Hamlet wants to find out the truth by instructing the actors to perform a play which contains striking similarities with the alleged story of the murder of Hamlet’s father. The embedded performance thus includes details from the broader plot, which illuminates a thematic aspect of the play itself.

Short Story: "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar A. Poe

“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe sports a particularly noteworthy example of mise en abyme by containing a story within a story. Towards the end of the story, the narrator begins to read aloud parts of an antique volume entitled Mad Trist by Sir Launcelot Canning. At first, the narrator only vaguely realises that the sounds occurring in the embedded fiction Mad Trist can really be heard by him. The embedded story is subsequently more and more intertwined with the events that are happening in the embedding story, until, in a climactic scene, a supposedly dead and buried member of the House of Usher (Madeline), is about to enter the room where the recital takes place when both she and her incestuously beloved brother die in a final embrace. This fall (and the partial mirroring of the scene in Mad Trist) anticipates the final fall of the House of Usher, which sinks into the tarn surrounding the building.

TV series: The Simpsons

It frequently happens in The Simpsons that the characters watch TV: characters of a TV series are thus watching TV themselves. This act is a mise en abyme, as we see a film within a film. However, if they were to start discussing what they are watching it would moreover be a case of metareference (or rather the mise en abyme would, as it sometimes does, have triggered metareferential reflections). Yet, as a rule, mise en abyme merely ‘mirrors’ elements from a superior level on a subordinate one, but do not necessarily trigger an analysis of those.

Potential problems

Mise en abyme can be easily confused with metalepsis and metareference. These terms describe related features, as mise en abyme can be a springboard to metalepsis if there is a paradoxical confusion of the levels involved. If the artificiality of the mirroring device or related issues are foregrounded or discussed, mise en abyme can also be conducive to metareference.

To summarise, mise en abyme is a form of similarity, repetition and hence a variant of self-reference that is NOT necessarily discussed within its appearing medium, it only occurs. If the occurrence IS discussed (or if mise en abyme triggers reflections on the respective medium, the construction of the text etc.), mise en abyme is combined with metareference.