NaokoSmith
Honourable Slut
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2012
- Posts
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Mimesis is the sort of opposite of diegesis (according to Plato). It means representation, and also the physical world as a model for truth, beauty and goodness. Diegesis is narrative.
I suppose you could sum it up as "show" vs. "tell". There are two ways of doing background in stories. One is to show it through mannerisms, behaviour, objects. I wrote a blogpost on my writing blog about how luxury items like fine wines can be used to flesh out erotic fiction characters. (No, LaRascasse, I have still not forgiven you for creating a character so evil that he drank champagne with ravioli ).
The other way to do background is to tell it:
She had recently been divorced.
Vs. There was still a pale band on her ring finger.
Auerbach's Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature describes how through the ages different writers have made us feel we were there, part of the action. I'm slowly reading it, so I'll post some thoughts on the chapters as I go.
Feel free to post your thoughts on mimesis or diegesis here.
ETA:
The edition of Mimesis I am using is
Auerbach, E. (1968) trans. Trask, W.R. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey.
Auerbach originally wrote the book between 1942 and 1945 in Istanbul and it was first published in 1946 in Berne.
I suppose you could sum it up as "show" vs. "tell". There are two ways of doing background in stories. One is to show it through mannerisms, behaviour, objects. I wrote a blogpost on my writing blog about how luxury items like fine wines can be used to flesh out erotic fiction characters. (No, LaRascasse, I have still not forgiven you for creating a character so evil that he drank champagne with ravioli ).
The other way to do background is to tell it:
She had recently been divorced.
Vs. There was still a pale band on her ring finger.
Auerbach's Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature describes how through the ages different writers have made us feel we were there, part of the action. I'm slowly reading it, so I'll post some thoughts on the chapters as I go.
Feel free to post your thoughts on mimesis or diegesis here.
ETA:
The edition of Mimesis I am using is
Auerbach, E. (1968) trans. Trask, W.R. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey.
Auerbach originally wrote the book between 1942 and 1945 in Istanbul and it was first published in 1946 in Berne.
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