mise-en-abime: "a narrative enclave that reproduces the features of the
whole work that contains it."
A device with a peculiar fascination for both philosophers (as well as
narrative artists, mathematicians, cybernauts, and nature itself) this
self-recursive gesture has a pedigree stretching from Aristotle's entelechy
to Dennet's conciousness via Leibniz, Hegel. Goedel, etc. Perhaps it is
fascinating because it suggests a way of transcending time or at least hints
at momentary mastery time's materials. Think Griffin Milne in Altman's The
Player, or Marcel (let us call him) in Ruiz'z Proust. (What other films?).
I found Robert Stam's book (Reflexivity in Film and Culture) worthwhile but
a bit dry and uninspired - to put it too harshly, a standard labour on a
standard theme in standard texts of standard postmodernism.
Ross
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