Diegesis

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According to Gerald Prince in A Dictionary of Narratology^[1], diegesis is "(1) The (fictional) world in which the situations and events narrated occur; (2) Telling, recounting, as opposed to showing, enacting." In diegesis the narrator tells the story. The narrator presents to the audience or the implied readers the actions (and perhaps) thoughts of the characters (including perhaps, but not necessarily, all that dwells within their imagination, their fantasies and dreams).

Contents 1 Diegesis in contrast to mimesis 2 What diegesis is 3 Diegesis in literature 4 Diegesis in film 4.1 Film sound and music 5 Diegesis in Music-Theatre 6 Diegesis in Role-Playing Games 7 Diegesis in Professional Wrestling 8 Footnotes

Diegesis in contrast to mimesis

Diegesis (Greek διήγησις) has been contrasted since Plato's and Aristotle's times with mimesis, the form that is showing rather than telling the thoughts or the inner processes of characters, by external action and acting. Diegesis, however, is the narrative in fiction and nonfiction, the telling of the story by the narrator(s). The narrator(s) may speak through his/her characters or may be the invisible narrator or even the all-knowing narrator who speaks from above in the form of commenting on the action or the characters.

What diegesis is

Diegesis may concern elements, such as characters, events and things within the main or primary narrative. However, the author may include elements which are not intended for the primary narrative, such as stories within stories; characters and events that may be referred to elsewhere or in historical contexts and that are therefore outside the main story and are thus presented in an extradiegetic situation.

Diegesis in literature

For narratologists, all parts of narratives--characters, narrators, existents, actors--are characterized in terms of diegesis. For definitions of diegesis, one should consult Aristotle's Poetics; Gerard Genette's Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (Cornell University Press, 1980); or (for a readable introduction) H. Porter Abbott's The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative (Cambridge University Press 2002). In literature, discussions of diegesis tend to concern discourse/sjuzet (vs. story/fabula).

Diegesis is multi-levelled in narrative fiction. Genette distinguishes between three "diegetic levels." The extradiegetic level (the level of the narrative's telling) is, according to Prince, "external to (not part of) any diegesis." One might think of this as what we commonly understand to be the narrator's level, the level at which exists a narrator who is not part of the story he tells. The diegetic level is understood as the level of the characters, their thoughts and actions. The metadiegetic level or hypodiegetic level is that part of a diegesis that is embedded in another one and is often understood as a story within a story, as when a diegetic narrator himself/herself tells a story.

Diegesis in film

Because much of cinema is based on mimetic construction techniques (such as continuity editing), "diegetic" typically refers to the internal world created by the story that the characters themselves experience and encounter: the narrative "space" that includes all the parts of the story, both those that are and those that are not actually shown on the screen (such as events that have led up to the present action; people who are being talked about; or events that are presumed to have happened elsewhere).

Thus, elements of a film can be "diegetic" or "non-diegetic." These terms are most commonly used in reference to sound in a film, but can apply to other elements. For example, an insert shot that depicts something that is neither taking place in the world of the film, nor is seen, imagined, or thought by a character, is a non-diegetic insert. Titles, subtitles, and voice-over narration (with some exceptions) are also non-diegetic.

Film sound and music

Sound in films is termed diegetic if it is part of the narrative sphere of the film. For instance, if a character in the film is playing a piano, or turns on a CD player, the resulting sound is "diegetic." If, on the other hand, music plays in the background but cannot be heard by the film's characters, it is termed non-diegetic or, more accurately, extra-diegetic. The score of a film (commonly but erroneously called the "sound track") is "non-diegetic" sound. Some examples:

• Jacques Tati's film Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (Mr. Hulot's Holiday) systematically builds much of its humor through the systematic confusion and shifting placement of "diegetic" and "non-diegetic" sound-image relationships, showing that these positions depend on the audience's perception of the mimetic space of the film.

• In Blazing Saddles the new sherrif rides across the desert to swelling sound, revealed eventually as a jazz band with whom he exchanges greetings. Mel Brooks reuses this in High Anxiety with a symphony orchestra on a coach in the traffic surprising the protagonist, and hence the audience.

• In The Truman Show, a sequence shows the characters at night, when most of them are sleeping. Soft, soothing music plays, as is common in such scenes, but we assume that it does not exist in the fictional world of the film. However, when the camera cuts to the control room of Truman's artificial world, we see that the mood music is being played by a man standing at a bank of keyboards. This abrupt shift from apparently non-diegetic to diegetic is a kind of cinematic joke.

• The same joke is used in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka where the heros theme is heard in a non-diegetic context and then the camera pans back to show a group of musicians following him, playing the music diegetically, after their presence is pointed out by another character. The hero goes on to describe the band as his theme music, also parodying the idea of character themes in the movies that the film itself parodies.

• A similar instance (but reversed) is in the Scrubs episode "My Mentor" - J.D. is listening to Leroy's "Good Time" diegetically on his mp3 player. However, it seems to shift to non-diegetic sound as nurses change bedsheets in time with the music and the janitor sweeps the floor in time to the music.

• In the film Blowup, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, all the music heard in the film is diegetic - either heard from a live pop group, record player or car radio.

• Director Luis Buñuel disliked non-diegetic music, and tried to avoid it in his films. The films of his French era have absolutely no score, some (Belle de Jour, Diary of a Chambermaid) contain absolutely no music whatsoever. Belle de Jour does, however, feature (potentially) non-diegetic sound effects, believed by some to be clues as to whether or not the current scene is a dream.

• The film The Blair Witch Project was presented in the style of a documentary of real-life events, which would thus contain no non-diegetic music. To counter this, producers released a tie-in "soundtrack", fashioned to resemble a mixtape, containing tracks from various industrial and goth rock musicians. Keeping with the film's mockumentary theme, the soundtrack's liner notes state that the original mixtape was found in the abandoned car of one of the missing teens who appear in the film. Only one song (besides an eerie score in the closing credits) is heard within the film itself, playing briefly over a car stereo in the background.

• Another example of diegetic music is in the British soap "Eastenders". Often in the cafe, music is heard playing over the radio, and is usually modern music.

Diegesis in Music-Theatre

As with film, the term 'diegetic' refers to the function of the music within a work's theatrical narrative, with particular relevance to the role of song. Within the typical format of opera/operetta, characters are not 'aware' that they are singing. This is a non-diegetic use of song. If however the song is presented as a musical occurrence within the plot, then the number may be described as 'diegetic'.

For example, in The Sound of Music, the song "Do-Re-Mi" is diegetic, since the characters are aware they are singing. The character Maria is using the song to teach the children how to sing. It exists within the narrative sphere of the characters. In contrast, the song "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?" is non-diegetic, since the musical material exists externally to the narrative.

The "Once More, With Feeling" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer toys with the concept of non-diegetic versus diegetic music when the characters find themselves compelled to burst into song in the style of a musical. The audience's first critical assumption--that this is a "musical episode" where the Buffy cast is presumably unaware that they are singing--is overturned when it becomes clear that the characters are all too aware of their musical interludes and that determining the supernatural causes for the singing will be the focus of the episode's story. The audience is then forced to abandon one form of suspension of disbelief (i.e. that musical numbers will go unacknowledged by the characters in a musical) in favor of another (that the characters are aware of how unnatural spontaneous singing is in the context of the "real world").

Diegesis in Role-Playing Games

In role-playing games diegesis includes all the "in-game" parts of the story, both those that are and aren't actually played out. However, rules or system elements that are used to resolve what does and doesn't happen in the imagined situation are typically "non-diegetic." For example, the number of hit points that a character has may determine whether or not a character dies in a fight, but are not themselves part of the narrative situation. The term "meta-concept" is also used for some non-diegetic elements.^{[citation needed]}

Diegesis in Professional Wrestling

In professional wrestling diegesis refers to the portrayal of storylines and/or worked events within the professional wrestling industry as real. The terminology used in the professional wrestling industry for such diegesis is kayfabe.

Kayfabe is often seen as the suspension of disbelief that is used to create the non-wrestling aspects of promotions, such as feuds, storylines, and gimmicks, in a similar manner with other forms of entertainment such as soap opera or movie. In relative terms, a wrestler breaking kayfabe during a show would be likened to an actor breaking character on camera.

Footnotes

1. ^ Gerald Prince, A Dictionary of Narratology, 2003, University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 08-03287763

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