A specific textual technique
in text and hypertext
which produces a further narrative dimension is mise en abîme. It is a device
of mirroring a content or a specific textual structure to different points in
texts and thus creates different levels of textuality.
The term originates from heraldry. Shields in the middle ages used to be decorated
with coats of arms depicting the knight's personal heraldry. Thereby the spatial
impression of depth or even of an abyss (French: "abîme") is created. (Such
a semiotic technique was picked up in postmodern literature). It leads to a multiplication
of a topic in a spatial and not in a temporal mode. It is a form of telling and
showing at the same time, a kind of repetition of
same entities, a reflexive structuration, which results in a front to back dimensionality,
thus creating a three-dimensional narrative space.
see also the example of intratextuality
in Myst
contents
reference