Diegesis

The word Diegesis ( Greek  διήγησις diḗgesis "discussion", "representation") goes back to the ancient philosopher Socrates and describes a narrative mediation .

Antiquity

The opposite of diegesis is imitative mimesis , in which the narrated characters speak “through the mouth” of the narrator, which for Plato was a deception. His teacher Socrates was an opponent of scripture. In connection with Plato's condemnation of imitation, one must bear in mind that the direct speech of another is much more conspicuous when used in personal contact than in a written text and the verbatim rendering was not as respected as it is today.

According to Aristotle ( Poetics ), the narrative Diegesis in the epic contrasts with the imitative and therefore perceived as crude mimesis in the drama . Plato was an opponent of drama (but also of poetry in general), Aristotle was its defender. Plato described the epic as a hybrid of narrative and imitation, because in addition to narrated passages, people also have their say ( Politeia ). The Roman grammarian Diomedes Grammaticus adopted the Platonic three-way division of poetry into mimetic, diegetic and mixed. These views shaped the relationship between mimesis and diegesis and their evaluation in the late Middle Ages and modern times .

Usage today

In modern narrative theory , Diegesis refers to the narrative text as in purely descriptive passages or in indirect speech , while Mimesis refers to the character text, i.e. what is set in quotation marks . A first-person narrator can appear both as a narrator and as a speaking figure (example: "I said: 'Oops.'"). While reading, both are of course not told, but imitated.

In parallel, narrative theory knows the difference between showing (showing) and telling (saying).

Derived from Diegesis today there is the concept of diegesis , of a narrative in contrast level designated instead of a narrative instance.