Dictionary

diegesis en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌdaɪ.ɪˈd͡ʒiːsɪs/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˌdaɪ.əˈd͡ʒiːsɪs/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Ancient Greek διήγησις (diḗgēsis, “narration”), from διηγέομαι (diēgéomai, “I narrate”)

Meanings

1. A narration or recitation.
   • A novel like Sterne′s Tristram Shandy, however, simply embeds a number of different diegeses on the play-within-a-play model. 1985, Bill Nichols, Movies and Methods: An Anthology, page 504:
   • The standard distinction between mimesis and diegesis is usually referred to as that between showing and telling, between iconic and indexical signs on the one hand and symbolic signs on the other, between drama and recitation. 1991, Christopher Collins, The Poetics of the Mind's Eye: Literature and the Psychology of Imagination, page 4:
   • Extradiegetic music is a matter of pure convention. It constitutes an exception within Hollywood classical cinema, in which everything is to belong to diegesis in order to elaborate a fictive, realistic universe. 2004, Sarah Hatchuel, Shakespeare: From Stage to Screen, page 89:

Forms

Relateds

mimesis · diegetic