"mise en abyme"....What does it mean?

[masmdu]

What does this phrase mean? The only context I can find it in online is in French.

Anybody?

[fertilizeonarbusto]

1. I think

it means "put in the abyss", but not sure.

[GOPisEvil]

2. mise en is "put in"

abyme???? :shrug:

[kentuck]

3. Just guessing...

quagmire...

[GainesT1958]

4. Litterally: "Put in abyss", in French.

You know, kind of like we're finding our situation in Iraq to be right now!:eyes:

B-)

[fertilizeonarbusto]

5. LOL

Tre`s apropos, mon ami.

[alonso_quijano]

6. Repetition of something inside itself. More or less.

You ever pointed a video camera at a TV monitor? Look in the monitor: you will see an image of the TV, containing another image, containing another image, and so on forever.

Mise en abyme is the artistic or literary term for the same sort of device--a play within a play, a painting within a painting. (Well, a similar device, anyway; the dumbshow in Hamlet doesn't have an infinity of other plays inside of it.) It literally means placed in an abyss.

alonso_quijano, lit geek

[Olivier]

8. Absolutely.

I could not provide a better definition.

Just a little note though : it is spelled "mise en abîme", not abyme. ;-)

[masmdu]

7. THanks all

.