Fourteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Unlike logos, “what is said”, Lexis, “how it is said” can be divided two; Diegesis and Mimesis. In general term, diegesis is narration, mimesis is representation. Both of the terms originated from Platonic idealism which is based on theory of form, Idea. Ideal Idea for Plato is real truth, good and beauty. Because poets, same as artists, are usually imitating secondary idea next to real truth so artists should be kicked out of his Republic. In the modern text theory, narrative diegesis is usually regarded as telling and representative mimesis is usually regarded as showing. Because these framework is little ambiguous so we would rather back to the authentic terms coined by Plato and Aristotle; diegesis and mimesis. As said by Plato, there are pure diegesis, diegesis by means of mimesis, mixed form of diegesis and mimesis. It can be reframed as diegetic diegesis, mimetic diegesis, diegetic mimesis, mimetic mimesis. This quadripartite framework should be adapted to modern text and genres. Literary text are two types; telling and showing. But all literary texts, if it is literary text not literary work, are basically and originally diegesis. It is authentic characteristics of literary text unlike other genres as drama, movie, animation, opera etcIn this reason, literary text can be analyzed as bipartite framework; 1)diegetic diegesis 2)mimetic diegesis. On the other hand, other genre except literature, must be analyzed as art work.