Mise en abyme is a term from literary theory denoting a work that doubles itself within itself, for example a story placed within a story or a play within a play. Proliferating in experimental fiction in midcentury France, this technique had a strong impact on contemporary literary theory, but also, as this book project argues, on post-Heideggerian and post-structuralist philosophy. The Little Crystalline Seed focuses on how three of these thinkers invoke the concept of mise en (...) class='Hi'>abyme in order to establish ontologies that deviate from that of Heidegger. Iddo Dickmann demonstrates how the concept served in modeling Derrida's logic of supplementarity, Blanchot's philosophy of "ambiguity" and mechanism of Désouvrement, and Deleuze's philosophy of difference, time and repetition. Exploring the interpretative and generative potential of the mise en abyme for continental thought, Dickmann illustrates points of resonance between various philosophical topics such as aesthetics, ethics, time, logic, mirroring, play, and signification. (shrink)

Qu'y a-t-il de commun entre un manuscrit medieval, Les Menines de Velazquez, le Cameraman de Buster Keaton et On connait la chanson d'Alain Resnais? Reponse : la presence d'images inattendues, " enchassees ", telles une porte ouverte au fond de la piece dans le tableau du maitre espagnol, la queue d'un faisan pris au piege debordant largement du cadre d'une enluminure du XIVe siecle, la presence incongrue d'un navire de guerre dans les rues de New York chez Buster Keaton, des (...) meduses mobiles en surimpression a la fin du film de Resnais. Dispositifs et procedes aujourd'hui banalises au cinema et en video, les " images dans l'image " susceptibles, depuis des siecles, aussi bien d'intriguer que de passer presque inapercues aupres du spectateur, sont loin d'etre innocentes. Sous l'oeil attentif de Vincent Amiel, ces " images-secondes " inserees dans une image-englobante, injustement delaissees parfois par les estheticiens du cinema, acquierent un veritable statut theorique qui n'est pas celui d'une simple mise en abyme figee. Les images enchassees demandent a etre vues et pensees au moment ou elles deviennent images, dans l'instant de leur naissance, comme des figures cachees mais dynamiques qui, comme le souligne Amiel, " s'affirment comme monde et comme representation ". (shrink)

Philosophy in this text is considered under the model of mise en abyme, which is used in particular in the art of fiction narration. A novel about the process of novel writing is an example of mise en abyme. A film about movie directing is also an example of mise en abyme. A painting showing the artist working on the work of art also has features of mise en abyme. Likewise, (...) class='Hi'>mise en abyme philosophy is philosophy that discusses how philosophy is created. Philosophy in such a shape is no longer understood as an endless space “inhabited” by situations, concepts, assertions, philosophical theses which are, however, perceived as if from the inside of that space; by contrast, it starts to be perceived from the outside, from the perspective of activities that form its frame, that frame it. For example, two such framing activities are considered – refining situations which is responsible for the “splendor of truth” that shines forth in them and defying the passage of time when constructing situations which is decisive for their isolation from the stream of life. Philosophy that notices its own frame is anchored in the foundations of everyday life which is something irrefutable in relation to the very inside of philosophy; as a consequence, the idea of epistemological foundationalism may be renewed and recovered for philosophy. (shrink)