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Literature vocabulary · Plot and Structure

Mise en abyme

Meaning in literature, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In literature, mise en abyme means: An embedded image or narrative that reflects the larger work containing it.

In Turkish: iç içe yansıtma, mise en abyme

How it is used

Use for a meaningful miniature reflection of the containing work, not any story inside a story.

Example sentences

  1. The puppet play creates a mise en abyme by repeating the novel's family betrayal.

    The smaller performance mirrors the central conflict of the larger work.

  2. We identified a mise en abyme in the painting that shows the room containing it.

    The represented room reflects the space around the image itself.

Common collocations

  • a narrative mise en abyme
  • create a mise en abyme
  • frame narrativeA story structure in which one main narrative surrounds and presents one or more shorter stories inside it.
  • intertextualityThe way texts shape and depend on other texts, through quotation, allusion, parody, imitation or rewriting, so that meaning comes partly from these connections.

More terms: Plot and Structure

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