hans is, of course, right on target in pointing out the viewer's [or reader's] role in constructing the diegesis . . . and this is a point of enormous significance to some narratological issues . . . simple example: the narration [images on screen] shows the protagonist getting into his car in front of his home then -- through the narration device of the dissolve -- shows him getting out of his car in front of police headquarters . . . we automatically posit a journey from one to the other and attribute certain characteristics to this journey
curiously, this means there are things that we actually experience IN the text that are NOT part of the diegesis [background music is the classic example] and things that we do NOT experience in the text that ARE part of the diegesis
still, none of this changes the definition of diegesis, which remains everything in the depicted world that may in principle be experienced by the characters
05/09/2003 03:24 AM
Please respond to Film-Philosophy Salon
To: [log in to unmask] cc: (bcc: Michael Frank/Faculty/Bentley)
Subject: Re: what is diegesis?
--- Mike Frank <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> in narratology "diegesis" is what happens IN the
> world
> of characters -- the stuff within the fiction -- as
> distinct
> from "narration" which is everything that serves as
> a tool
> to create and communicate that stuff
It might be helpful to understand diegesis not (only)
as the depicted world, but as the world the reader /
audience constructs from the material provided by the
narration. So the diegetic world is the result of
"filling in blanks" and re-arranging the order of time
to his experience (that time is linear).
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