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Mise en abyme

Device
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

A formal technique of placing a copy of the image or text within itself; a nested or internal repetition of the text's theme or structure.

Detailed Definition
Mise en abyme is a narrative or structural device where a text contains a smaller version of itself—like a mirror reflecting a mirror—creating infinite regress or self-reflexivity; in poetry, it appears as a poem within a poem, a quoted stanza that echoes the whole, or a speaker describing their own composition, as in Ashbery’s “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror,” where form interrogates representation and artistic identity.
Example
Example in poetry:
Mise en abyme|Story within story creating infinite regression; Recursive structure mirroring itself; Poem containing miniature version of itself; Self-referential nesting
Additional Notes
Mise en abyme is a narrative structure that contains a smaller version of itself, as when a poem reflects on poetry within itself.
Also Known As
Infinite regress Story-within-story Recursive embedding Chinese-box structure
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