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Diegesis

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The narrative world presented in the poem, including events, characters, and objects; the act of relating a story

Detailed Definition
Diegesis in poetry refers to the narrative world or story-space that the poem constructs—its setting, characters, and events—as distinct from the poet’s reality; diegetic elements (e.g., a speaker recounting a dream) create immersive fiction, while non-diegetic intrusions (e.g., authorial commentary) break the frame, a tension central to dramatic monologue and meta-poetic forms that interrogate storytelling itself.
Example
Example in poetry:
Diegesis|Narrator telling story events in epic; Third-person recounting in ballad; Story summarized rather than dramatized; Narrative exposition in verse
Additional Notes
Diegesis refers to the "story world" of a poem or narrative, distinguishing events within the text from commentary outside it.
Other Meanings of “Diegesis”
Also Known As
Narrative exposition Story-telling mode Narrative recounting Prose narration
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