Put in abyss

The put in abyss (one also writes: put in abyme ) is a process consisting in encrusting a Image in itself, or, generally, to represent a work in a standard work in the same way. One finds there the type of “Autosimilarité” which also constitutes the principle of the Fractales or of the Récursivité in mathematics.

Origin of the expression

In Heraldic, the abyss (or abyme) is small a central part of the ecu which does not touch nor does not charge any other; contrary to a part " on the tout" , it is famous being at the bottom (" abîmée") and is named in the last. There is however no example into heraldic traditional that this part takes again the reason for the ecu.

The expression used in the semiological direction goes back to André Gide, which note in its Journal in 1893:

“I like enough that in a work of art one finds thus transposed, on a character scale, the subject even of this work per comparison with this process of the blazon who consists, in the first, to put the second in abyme. ”

Perhaps Gide refers it also to the poetic kind of the blazon , in vogue at the 16th century, in which the author makes a detailed description of a person or an object.

The orthography evoked in the preceding paragraph is prone to guarantee; one can indeed read in the good use of Maurice Grévisse:

“the theorists of the literature have ressuscity the old C-W communication abyme with there , especially in the formula put in abyme , proceeded literary evoking the play of the mirrors. But some estimate that, even in this direction, the ordinary C-W communication can be appropriate: Which knows if the goal of such a set of mirrors is not to give us, by this reflection IN ABYSS of Hegel on Genet, of Broom on Hegel, giddiness of the indefinite one? (Chr. Delacampagne, in Le Monde , January 3rd, 1975) ”.

Artistic process

In Literature, the setting in abyme is a process consisting in placing inside the principal Récit an account which takes again in a more or less faithful way of the actions or topics of the principal account, as in the part Hamlet (see examples below). One should not confuse the setting in abyme with the Récit enchased , which consists in making tell by the character of an account another account, in which can appear a character who will still tell some another, as in the Thousand and One Nights .

In graphic arts, the husbands Arnolfini (Jan van Eyck, 1434, 82 × 60 cm, painting on wood, National Gallery, London) is a famous example in which a convex Miroir reflects the whole of the scene (including the mirror itself, and so on). One can also quote the better known example of the drawing of the box of Fromage in portions “the cow which laughs”: the cow carries earrings which themselves are boxes of Cow which laughs, etc

In certain works of theater and cinema, an actor plays the part of an actor who plays a part… (process called commonly “theater in the theater”).

The setting in abyme is an artistic process - or of intellectual reflection - which often involves a feeling of Vertige.

Use of the process

This process makes it possible to create disorder in narrative convention . The process allows to give the tournis to the reader or to the listener who quickly does not know any more which speaks: the author, Shéhérazade or a character? Here, it is a question of redoubling the disorder of the king who forgets to get rid of Shéhérazade.

In Ménines of Diego Vélasquez (see illustration), the process is used in a paradoxical way because one does not see really the table which it is painting, which adds to the disorder: which is the object of this table, the gesture of the painter (whom one does not see painting but looking at), the infante at its sides or what the painter looks at and which one hardly sees in the mirror (the king and the queen), the turned over table?

The setting in abyss can also play the part of wink inserted by the author, or enable him to engage, on the mode of the Humor (autodérision), a criticism on its own work, even on the kind to which it belongs.

Frederic Beigbeder and Milan Kundera is two authors who are accustomed to using the setting damages some to bring a reflection on their work that the protagonists themselves could not, since they are prisoners, have occupied too much by what arrives to them.

Examples

Images

Image of the cow which laughs and its earrings.
Label of the Dubonnet aperitif of the cat which surrounds the bottle with a label.
the poster of the film Memorandum .
a table representing a painter painting or another table in an environment ( Ménines of Diego Vélasquez).
the small pocket of the album of Pink Floyd, Ummagumma .
the cover of the Cartoon You do not have shame? of Dany.

Literature

a novel speaking about a novelist writing a book (examples: I am writer or Three days in my mother of François Weyergans).
a novel whose principal subject is the aforementioned novel:

Fruits of gold of Nathalie Sarraute,
the Counterfeiters of Andre Gide,
history without end , of Michael Ende,
an one-way ticket , of Didier Van Cauwelaert,
Three days in my mother , of François Weyergans,
a cabinet of amateur , of Georges Perec,
the timetable, of Michel Bittern, where the same narrator superimposes different periods of time, then the same period of time seen at different times

Noblesse obliges . Condemned for the only crime which it did not commit, a gentleman describes in his cell his true crimes, and… its manuscript during its release forgets there.

In the capacity of the fables , the Fountain speaks in praise of this kind which is the fable by introducing into its text a second fable.

In the novel the Tunnel of Ernesto Sabato, the painter has recourse to a method of setting in abyme in one of its paintings. Indeed, a window inside the table reveals another scene, hidden. This one contains the true message of work, whereas all the remainder is only one ornament in order to mislead the least enlightened;

In its novel Stéphanie Phanistée, Frédérick Tristan puts in scene the same woman at the time of accounts encased one in another.

blue Flowers of Raymond Queneau

the return to the ground, data base of Larcenet and Ferri where the characters, representing the authors, speaks about setting in abyss by carrying out this one which speaks about a setting in abyss and where the character of manu does not include/understand anything any more… manu result wonders whether one will laugh at him or of the character whom the character draws that it draws in the data base

Theater, cinema, television

the tragedy Hamlet of Shakespeare: inside the part a play is played which will denounce the adultery and the murder of the father of Hamlet.
the comic Illusion of Crow which proves to be a part in the part.
Six characters in search of author of Luigi Pirandello, a theatrical part where the characters live and meet “their actors”, who will have to play these characters, etc
a film showing the realization of a film:

The Player of Robert Altman,
Take guard with the holy whore Rainer Werner Fassbinder
the American Night of François Truffaut, film which tells the turning of a film,
François Truffaut took again the process in the last subway , which tells the assembly of a play under the Occupation: several actors play at the same time their characters and the characters whom they are supposed to interpret in the part and many counterparts of the last can apply to the first; until the final pirouette: the actor and resistant incarnated by Depardieu is wounded " in true the vie" to the Release, her amante the actress and director of theater played by Catherine Deneuve comes to her bedside to the hospital and the death of her husband announces to him and, in the second which follows, all three are raised to greet: they played in a new part. Winks on the side of the comic Illusion and the American Night , which are as many new settings in abyss.
the Mistress of the French lieutenant of Karel Reisz
Sex is comedy of Catherine Breillat,
Some opus of the series Freddy

the Televised series Stargate SG-1 car-parody by integrating in the intrigue of several episodes a series of poor quality entitled Wormhole X-Treme! (it is however only the example more striking, the scenario writers being usual of this type of allusions).
the film Scream 2 parody the first opus of the trilogy, Scream in the shape of a film of Series B: Stab .
In some televised series, it arrives that the characters listen to or sing the music of the credits; for example in Simpson: (Homer: Bart! stop whistling this weak song!)
In the film We were free the Gildas heroin, played by Charlize Théron, plays a part in a Peplum which one sees with the cinema.
In the film Spaceballs , where the crew looks at it video of film and arrives at the moment when " now is in the train of arriver".

Others

This small dialog:

- Where do you go?

- With the cinema.

- What will you see?

- Quo vadis?

- What does that want to say?

- “Where do you go? ”

- With the cinema…

The Infinity Cat Project : cats which look at cats which look at cats…
the play on PC Wing ordering (flight simulator with battles) comprises itself in the room of the pilots a flight simulator on which the pilots can involve themselves to control their apparatuses.
the Russian headstocks.
Several mirrors laid out ones opposite the others (gallery of the ices).
a camera directed on its video monitor.
the recursive acronyms, proceeded widespread in the world of the Free software: the license GNU meaning “GNU is Not Unix”, for “PHP Preprocessor Hypertext”…
To make a Dream in which one dreams;
the article Wikipédia in Wikipédia.
a bond towards this article.
In the Being and Nothing , Jean-Paul Sartre speaks to us a time about the capacity which has the human being to be conscious of its existence, then on the possibility of being conscious that one is conscious. He warns us then that it is preferable to stop on this level of conscience for any philosophical study, since any higher level (i.e: the conscience to be conscious of being conscious), to some extent moves away us from the study of the conscience itself.
the Bachelorette clip of Björk.
In the software Mozilla Firefox to type in the bar of address chrome: //browser/content/browser.xul. The navigator appears in the navigator. To start again the experiment the bar of address of this new navigator…
In the video game RPG Planescape: Torment, it is possible to find an access to a Maze. This maze caricatures an experiment which is not other than a roleplay. This caricature is all the more strong as the original play is centered reflection and reading of dialogs, while the interior play is a Hack and slash.

References

Lucien Dällenbach, the specular account. Test on the setting in abyme , Paris, Threshold, 1977.
Article " Setting in abyme" in the International Dictionary of the Literary Terms

Film containing a film

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