mise en abyme

mise en abyme noun: a recursive image; an image that contains a smaller representation of itself; especially where the smaller representation itself likewise contains a still smaller representation of the whole image, ad infinitum.

Image: Alf van Beem, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

mise en abyme (usually uncountable, plural mise en abymes or mises en abyme)

(usually) A recursive image; an image that contains a smaller representation of itself; especially where the smaller representation itself likewise contains a still smaller representation of the whole image, ad infinitum.
(usually, literary theory) Self-reflection or introspection in a literary or other artistic work; the representation of the whole work embedded in a work.
- The narrative mapping of rhetorical strategies between narrator, characters and readers is supplemented by a network of interior duplication with the device of the mise en abyme.1992, Marie Murphy, Authorizing Fictions, page 80
- Implicitly, the enunciative mise en abyme reflects an implied author who is attempting to persuade an authorial audience that would identify with the dismayed people.1995, Robert L. Brawley, Text to Text Pours Forth Speech: Voices of Scripture in Luke-Acts, page 39

Examples of mise en abyme in a sentence

Herman finds that “the opening poems are as marked by 'linguistic difference' and mise en abymes as the poems addressed to the dark lady.”1999, James Schiffer, Shakespeare's Sonnets: Critical Essays, published 2010, unnumbered page:
These mise en abymes serve to maintain the sacredness of K's self, his otherness in the infinitum, as Lévinas might say.2011, Irene Marques, Transnational Discourses on Class, Gender, and Cultural Identity, page 160:
And thus, we can perhaps makes some sense of the narratives he reads as mise en abymes of his own desires.2011, Jonathan Boulter, Melancholy and the Archive: Trauma, History and Memory in the Contemporary Novel, page 124:

Forms of mise en abyme

plural	mise en abymes
plural	mises en abyme
alternative form	mise-en-abyme

Origin of mise en abyme

Borrowed from French mise en abyme (literally “placement into abyss”).

Questions about mise en abyme

What does mise en abyme mean?: Mise en abyme means a recursive image; an image that contains a smaller representation of itself; especially where the smaller representation itself likewise contains a still smaller representation of the whole image, ad infinitum.
How do you use mise en abyme in a sentence?: Herman finds that “the opening poems are as marked by 'linguistic difference' and mise en abymes as the poems addressed to the dark lady.”
What part of speech is mise en abyme?: Mise en abyme is a noun.
What is the plural of mise en abyme?: The plural of mise en abyme is mise en abymes.

Words near mise en abyme in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: mise en abyme (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “mise en abyme.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mise_en_abyme. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.