Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The presentation of a narrative without direct dramatic imitation of the events, scenes, or characters described.
  • noun The world that is depicted in a work of narrative art, especially a film.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In rhetoric, that part of an oration in which the speaker makes his statement of facts; the narration (which see).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A narrative or history; a recital or relation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun narratology A narration or recitation.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek diēgēsis, narration, narrative, from diēgeisthai, to describe : dia-, dia- + hēgeisthai, to lead; see sāg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek διήγησις ("narration"), from διηγέομαι ("I narrate")

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Examples

  • From the Greek diegesis, meaning the summary of an argument, we get the idea of production sound (sound within the movie that has a source within the movie), which is diegetic.

    The 10 Things I Hate About You Lesson Plan « We Don't Count Your Own Visits To Your Blog 2006

  • (I had to look up, for example, the word diegesis — n.

    Lost In Space 2009

  • (I had to look up, for example, the word diegesis — n.

    Lost In Space 2009

  • (I had to look up, for example, the word diegesis — n.

    Lost In Space 2009

  • In other words: diegesis as storification of self and past; the marvelous; and the non-cynical view of reality these engender.

    Archive 2009-07-01 Hal Duncan 2009

  • Rather it is, as I say: “about diegesis as storification of self and past; the marvelous; and the non-cynical view of reality these engender.”

    Bukiet on Brooklyn Books Hal Duncan 2009

  • In other words: diegesis as storification of self and past; the marvelous; and the non-cynical view of reality these engender.

    Bukiet on Brooklyn Books Hal Duncan 2009

  • Actually, as soon as I posted that, as I was toddling off to my bed, my immediate thought was that I was glossing over the way magic realism uses diegesis in exactly that way, to give a sense of a told tale — “there was once a boy” — and for precisely those reasons — influence by folktales, the anecdotal form, all the told tales of a culture.

    War of All Against All: Realism vs Fabulism? Er, No… 2009

  • Ironic and distanced at first as the proper mimeticist should be, but of course, once you start playing with diegesis, story is so seductive.

    War of All Against All: Realism vs Fabulism? Er, No… 2009

  • Mimesis of the oneiric + mimesis of the text = mimesis of the story = mimesis of diegesis.

    War of All Against All: Realism vs Fabulism? Er, No… 2009

Comments

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  • This is also (in addition to portmanteau) a very popular word on Wikipedia.

    November 11, 2007

  • A parable mates sundry pieces:

    The set-up we call diegesis,

    But all who are able

    To tinker a fable

    Will use it to prop up a thesis.

    May 30, 2016