Diegesis

This study is part of a master’s dissertation aiming to investigate the immersion of user interfaces in first person games using virtual reality. This evaluation is based on the concepts established by the Diegesis theory. Based on that, a table was created with the identified elements in the games that induce more or less immersion to the player. Through the data collected, a questionnaire was developed to obtain information from developers, designers and players, to evaluate the most and the fewer immersive elements of the interfaces in the games selected. The results showed that the Diegetic and Spatial interfaces are the most immersive for virtual reality first person games, and the less immersive were the Meta and Non-Diegetic interfaces. Thus these results can be important if they influence the creation of games interfaces more immersive, because all players want to be immersed when playing games, in particular when playing in virtual environments.

La narratividad no es solo una cualidad de determinados discursos (verbales o no). Es una dimensión básica de nuestra existencia: la narratividad o relatividad ontológica. También, al experimentar la existencia como "agôn", la dimensión dramática está enraizada con nuestro mundo de la vida. En este ensayo hacemos una revisión del texto original de la Poética aristotélica, evidenciando que narración y drama difieren no por los medios ni por el objeto de la imitación, sino por el modo. Así, más allá de una oposición equívoca (diégesis vs. mímesis) proponemos la consideración, dentro de las formas de mímesis, de una dimensión puramente dietética, que reproduce con palabras las palabras y los hechos de los protagonistas, frente a una mimesis pragmática, propia del teatro, en la que las palabras son palabras, pero las acciones se representan como acciones.

August Rush (2007), directed by Kirsten Sheridan, tells the story of an orphaned musical prodigy, Evan Taylor, using his gift to find his parents. While the central message of August Rush is how music connects people, it interestingly reveals several complicated connections between music and images. First, the soundtrack of August Rush incorporates everyday “noises” as musical elements, with images addressing their sources. This challenges the audience to constantly relate timbre to its source images, and also induces satisfaction when the unrevealed source is later revealed. Second, music in August Rush tells the narrative before image does. For instance, the fusion of two musical styles in the “Louis/Lyla” scenes pre-establishes the bonding between the protagonist’s parents, while the image of them cuddling is shown afterwards. Imagery thus functions to provide additional information or clarification. Last but not least, music connects “past” and “present” imagery. The music performance of “August Rhapsody” in the final scene recalls previous events, which juxtaposes with the “present” images and hence implies multiple meanings.

In this article, I first illustrate the aforementioned connections in the opening scene, the “City Symphony” scene and the “Louis/Lyla” scenes etc. Then I provide a detailed analysis of “August’s Rhapsody,” particularly on its relation to other scenes to further demonstrate the connections in macroscopic view. I conclude that imagery in August Rush unusually becomes the supporting element and only with music can it be connected, transcending time and space.

This study aimed to investigate the immersion of user interfaces that bring first person games using virtual reality based on the concepts established by the Diegesis theory. To conclude, a table has been created with identified elements of the games that bring more or less immersion to the player. Through the data collected, a questionnaire was developed to obtain information from developers, designers and players, in relation to the more immersive elements, and others with less immersive elements of the interfaces and concluding that the Diegetic and Spatial Interfaces are the most immersive for first-person games in virtual reality, and less immersive were the Meta and Non-Diegetic interfaces. Through this information, it is possible that there is a strong influence in the creation of games interfaces, after all we all want to be immersed when playing digital games.

It is clear that the Japanese film up until the 1930s displayed a very characteristic “national style” which differed from the West.  Silent films were largely influenced by the traditional Japanese performing art known as kabuki.  Intrinsic to these early silent films was the presence of a physical narrator, the benshi, which has had a lasting influence to the present day.  Cinematic techniques were used in different ways and for different purposes.  Early reform of the Japanese film industry, in addition, to making film more realistic and accessible for the working classes also allowed women to participate in film and for an entirely new genre of film to be created.  The influence of the dramatic and visual arts has had a lasting influence on Japanese films up until the 1930s and has played a large part in the characteristic “national style” of Japanese film. 

1930年代までの日本映画までは西洋とは異なり非常に特徴的な「国家のスタイル」を表示していたことが明らかです。無声映画は、主に歌舞伎のような伝統的日本の影響を受けていました。これら初期の無声映画に固有しているのは、現在まで続いて影響を与えている物理的な語り手、弁士の存在でした。映画技術は、様々な方法、異なる目的のために使用されました。さらに、日本の映画産業の早期改革は、労働者階級には現実的かつ便利に、また許可された女性が映画に参加しており、映画の全く新しいジャンルが作成されました。劇的、視覚芸術の影響は、最大1930年代まで日本映画に持続的な影響を与え、日本映画の特徴的な「国家のスタイル」に大きな役割を果たしてきました。

This work studies the image of Byzantine emperors, from Theodosius I to Heraclius, as they are reflected by a Xth century manuscript called The Patria, which is a compilation of four books that focuses on the city of Constantinople and its heritage without praising the church nor the emperors. It contains the most famous legends and anecdotes of the city.
So, this study analyzes the byzantine emperors of the late antiquity from this secular perspective and offers a new vision of the imperial figures.

Artykuł stanowi rozwinięcie i dopełnienie badań zaprezentowanych w pracy „Ściany labiryntu. Systemy narracyjne Franza Kafki i Nikołaja Gogola” (Świerczyński 2020). Jego głównym celem jest zarówno przedstawienie i analiza gogolowskich inspiracji Franza Kafki (1883–1924), przede wszystkim na płaszczyźnie poetyki, jak i ugruntowanie świadomości owych wpływów, w granicach polskiego literaturoznawstwa, dotychczas raczej w nim niedostrzeganych. Punkt wyjścia stanowi analiza pojęcia absurdu w recepcji współczesnych badaczy ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem jego rozumienia przedłożonego przez Alberta Camusa (1913–1960). Autor prezentuje poszczególne filary konstrukcyjne stanowiące o absurdzie obecnym w diegezie utworów Kafki i Gogola (1809–1852), ogniskując swoją uwagę na jej dialektyczności, wszechobecności przemiany czy inherentnej niepewności stanowiącej rdzeń „metafizycznego horroru”, w jakim zmuszeni są funkcjonować Kafkowscy i Gogolowscy bohaterowie.

❧ Świerczyński, F., „Transfiguracje labiryntu. Absurd w poetyce Franza Kafki i Nikołaja Gogola”, „Studia Rossica Gedanensia” 2021, nr 8, s. 175–204.

❧ URL: https://czasopisma.bg.ug.edu.pl/index.php/SRG/issue/view/493/274

La ficción cinematográfica, mediante la manipulación de los sonidos y su orientación conceptual, ha permitido ser narrada también desde el aspecto sonoro. En el artículo se observan los aspectos acústicos que determinarán diferentes estrategias de recepción audiovisual dirigidas al espectador.

Résumé :
La notion de diègèsis, telle qu’elle est développée par Platon dans la République et par Aristote dans  la Poétique a participé à la fondation de l’édifice théorique de la narratologie. Cependant, l’examen des textes indique une notion complexe et polysémique. La diègèsis au sens général d’exposé désigne l’acte verbal d’un sujet qui dirige et contrôle son discours de bout en bout,  qu’il s’agisse d’un développement théorique, philosophique, judiciaire ou poétique. Cette notion commune fait l’objet de deux appropriations philosophiques. En associant la diègèsis à la façon de dire (lexis), Platon analyse comment l’« imitation » transforme l’acte de parole de celui qui en est responsable. Redéfinissant les termes platoniciens, et notamment l’imitation qu’il associe à tout acte de création artistique, Aristote oppose le « diégématique » au « dramatique », deux façons de réaliser l’intrigue par des moyens diamétralement opposés. Ce faisant, Aristote redéfinit complètement la diègèsis : à l’inverse de Platon, celle-ci est comprise comme un récit sans sujet.

Abstract:
The concept of diègèsis, as theorized by Plato in the Republic and by Aristotle in the Poetics has become one of the keys of narratology. However, when we go back to Greek texts, we discover a complex notion with different meanings. Generally, diègèsis means account. It refers to the act of presenting by someone who leads the speech from a beginning to an end. This can be a philosophic, judiciary or poetic speech. Plato uses the term diègèsis in association with lexis, the way of speaking (lexis): he analyses how “imitation” can transform the act of speaking. After Plato, Aristotle completely changes the meaning of the terms: “imitation” is now an act of creation inside which he distinguishes two opposite ways of realization of a “plot”: “diegematic” and “dramatic”. Thus, Aristotle gives a new definition of diègèsis: on the contrary to Plato, it is now understood as a narrative without subject.

One of the most central and often repeated adages in Filmmaking is “Show, don’t tell”.
Working with a medium such as Film, where the visual aspect is dominant, led
filmmakers to develop specific ways to narrate a story visually, shying away from
verbal narration. As David Bordwell (2010) puts it, “Cinema, the reasoning goes, is a
visual medium, and whenever you can replace a word, or a string of them, by images
you should try to do so. The aim is what we now call visual storytelling.” This means
that any superfluous verbal element, including dialogue, should, according to the adage,
be converted into visual information.
“Show, don’t tell” exposes a dichotomy that stems from Aristotelic philosophy.
Bordwell (1987: 3), referring back to Aristotle’s Poetics, “demarcate[s] two influential
conceptions of narration. Diegetic theories conceive of narration as consisting either
literally or analogically of verbal activity: a telling. (…) Mimetic theories conceive of
narration as the presentation of a spectacle; a showing.” Since the Diegetic mode is
intimately linked to verbal activity, it is perhaps unsurprising that Film ended up highly
favouring the Mimetic mode.
However, there are still a fair number of filmmakers who whose the Diegetic mode as a
distinctive mark of personal style and originality. For my essay, I intend to focus upon
Manoel de Oliveira’s A Talking Picture and Roy Andersson’s short film World of Glory
and analyse the tension between the Diegetic and the Mimetic modes in both films. In
addition, I also have the goal of identifying the way both directors employ diverse
stylistic solutions and devices as a consequence of the tension between the two modes.

Un elemento esencial para el desdoblamiento de la trama y la complejidad psicológica de los eventos en Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? por Joyce Carol Oates es el concepto del espacio. En su teoría de la narratología, Mieke Ball llama al lugar en donde un personaje se encuentra situado el frame o marco (Narratology, 134). Este componente es especialmente importante en el cuento de Oates, ya que los marcos topográficos están cargados de significado, y se pueden incluso concebir como símbolos.

Previous research has shown that player involvement can be influenced by a range of factors, from the controllers used to the perceived level of challenge provided by the game. However, little attention has been paid to the influence of the game interface. Game interfaces consist of both diegetic (that can be viewed by the player-character, e.g. the game world) and non-diegetic components (that are only viewed by the player, e.g. the heads-up display). In this paper we examine two versions of a first-person shooter game to investigate how immersion is influenced through interacting with a diegetic and non-diegetic interface. Our findings suggest that the removal of non-diegetic elements, such as the heads-up display, is able to influence immersion in expert players through increasing their cognitive involvement and sense of control. We argue that these results illustrate the importance of considering the role of expertise in relation to how particular design choices will influence the player experience.

Sommario:
p. 3 Introduzione
p. 7 Cap. 1 L'elegia di argomento storico-mitico come genere letterario
p. 23 Cap. 2 L'elegia diegetica tra l'età arcaica e l'inizio dell'età classica
p. 51 Cap. 3 Le elegie di Simonide di Ceo sulle guerre persiane
p. 87 Cap. 4 L'elegia di Archiloco sul mito di Telefo
p. 107 Riflessioni a margine
p. 109 Bibliografia
p. 119 Indice dei luoghi discussi
p. 121 Indice delle cose notevoli

This article has a dual focus.  On the one hand, it traces the history of the tradition of the floating and rotating dome and relates it to the idea of the sublime.  On the other hand, it delves into the phenomenological component of the sublime as discussed in philosophy and as presented in literature and in architecture in relationship to expansive space.  In the process, it distinguishes between the architectural sublime, the cosmological sublime, and the spatial sublime.

Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse a été dépouillée de certains documents visuels et audio‐visuels. La version intégrale du mémoire [de la thèse] a été déposée à la Division de la gestion des documents et des archivesDes convergences technologiques, économiques et socio-culturelles ont contribué à favoriser, depuis la fin du siècle dernier, le déploiement à grande échelle de représentations d’univers, réels comme fictionnels, sur de nombreux médias et plateformes. Des pratiques de création et de consommation médiatique renouvelées sont ainsi apparues autour d’objets médiatiques que, faute d’autres termes, on a pu un temps qualifier de nouveaux médias. Le transmédia s’est inscrit dans cette dynamique de médias non plus envisagés comme des entités stables, mais comme des flux aux contours changeants, poreux. Représentant l’avenir de notre rapport aux médias et au monde pour certains, mort-né pour d’autres, le transmédia, ou plutôt le transmédiat...

Das filmtheoretische Werk des Philosophen Étienne Souriau (1892–1979) ist schmal, aber bis heute enorm einflussreich. Mit Das filmische Universum liegen erstmals sämtliche seiner Schriften zum Film auf Deutsch vor. Gerahmt werden sie durch ein Vorwort des Herausgebers Guido Kirsten sowie eine Würdigung Souriaus als Filmtheoretiker durch Christian Metz.
Als »filmisches Universum« bezeichnet Souriau die Gesamtheit der vom klassischen Kino gesetzten Handlungswelten, im Unterschied zu den Universen anderer Künste und Medien. Er versteht darunter allgemeine Eigenschaften wie die Positionierung der Zuschauenden und wiederkehrende Strukturmerkmale, die etwa Raum und Zeit, Geografie und Meteorologie betreffen. Das »filmische Universum« bezeichnet auch das Zusammenspiel verschiedener Ebenen, die Souriau mittels eines eigenen Vokabulars analytisch erfasst. Wenige filmspezifische Wortschöpfungen haben eine derartige Karriere gemacht wie seine Begriffe des »Profilmischen« und des »Diegetischen«, aus deren wechselseitiger Konstellierung sich ganze filmphilosophische Entwürfe ableiten lassen. Das Potenzial anderer Begriffe, wie etwa des »Filmophanen«, der das audio-visuell Erscheinende bezeichnet, unabhängig von profilmischen und diegetischen Zuschreibungen, harrt noch der Erschließung. Auch Souriaus komparative Methode und sein Denken in »Existenzweisen« und »Universen« sind für die Theorie und Philosophie des Films weiterhin äußerst produktiv.

La música en las diversas entregas de Bioshock ha demostrado un nivel de sofisticación y cohesión inauditas respecto a otras franquicias de FPSs, revelando una construcción ficcional de un mundo de una profundidad inusitada, que ha consagrado su estilo como inconfundible y ha dejado su huella en posteriores productos.
Este trabajo se centrará en la reflexión sobre el papel de la banda sonora en su influencia en la narración de la historia de un videojuego, y utilizará dos títulos de factura reciente de Irrational Games como ejemplos paradigmáticos. Comprendiendo que el papel de la música suele ser periférico en una historia (suele utilizarse como ambientación, anticipación, mero acompañamiento o descripción emotiva), se intentará repensar su rol en estas dos entregas para poder caracterizar dicho estilo y ponderarlo en su interés histórico innovador.
A través de una reflexión de los distintos niveles de interacción y cohesión que en ambos videojuegos tiene la banda sonora, el trabajo buscará comprender cuán importante y flexible puede ser el rol de la música como espectáculo, alusión, recurso retórico o cierre argumental en un objeto cultural tan complejo como es un videojuego. Además, se tomará en cuenta su papel en la creación de un mundo verídico y sensible y cómo el diseño sonoro de dichos videojuegos persigue una íntima relación con períodos históricos e ideas filosóficas representados.
Palabras clave: diégesis, banda sonora, Bioshock, narración.

Disponible en: https://www.aacademica.org/aahd.congreso/tabs/proceedings. ISBN: 978-987-4019-97-4

Während eine Handlung in Medien wie Büchern oder Filmen in der Regel linear abläuft und sich auf die durch das mediale Dispositiv eingegrenzten Rahmen beschränkt, bietet das Computerspiel im Gegensatz dazu einen offeneren Raumzugang, der vor allem auf dem Prinzip der Exploration beruht. Neben den offensichtlichen Primärzielen eines Spiels kann der Spieler auch einen kontemplativen Ansatz verfolgen, um reflexive Elemente zu entdecken. Dabei zeigt sich besonders in einigen aktuellen Spielen, deren ludischer Aufbau eigentlich nicht für eine flanierende Exploration ausgelegt ist, ein diskursiver Mehrwert, der über die primären Unterhaltungswerte des Spiels hinausgehen kann. Dieser Beitrag soll das Konzept dieser digitalen Flanerie und deren Bedeutung für die mediale Rezeption anhand des Spiels Wolfenstein: The New Order erläutern.

Si les sciences humaines ont connu un “tournant narratif”, celui-ci ne doit pas éclipser un mouvement bien plus large : le tournant diégétique. Alors que les fictions traditionnelles reposaient sur la coextensivité de leurs matériaux diégétique et narratif, nos contemporains multiplient les apports non narratifs aux univers de fiction : cartes, généalogies, bestiaires, objets, catalogues, etc. La diégèse se développe au-delà de son substrat narratif, ce qui favorise les raisonnements en termes de  mondes  fictionnels riches de virtualités créatives.

Lancée par les éditions Mnémos, la collection Ourobores propose des guides de mondes fictionnels, issus aussi bien de la littérature (Verne, Lovecraft, Gaborit) que de jeux de simulation (RétroFutur, Nephilim). L’analyse de ces ouvrages montre que le tournant diégétique favorise l’émergence de nouvelles formes éditoriales, au confluent de cultures littéraires, graphiques et ludiques, et que le déploiement des virtualités d’un monde fictionnel demeure compatible avec l’affirmation d’un projet d’auteur.

In this paper, I introduce the notion of communicative-expressive interaction with a character’s mind, within an interactive fiction video. It is an interaction model that allows a participant continuous interaction with a story as a way of increasing the participant’s agency and immersion and consequently both the sense of engagement and the meaning of the interactive experience in its relation to the story. I describe a work-in-progress system called the InterFace Portrait Storyteller, in which participants use familiar gestures performed on a touch screen to explore the character’s mind, which is constructed as a diegetic space. I also describe two interactive video installations, “One Measure of Happiness ” and “Have I Lost My Plot? ” within which the system interacts with either narrative or non-narrative approaches to the representation of diegtic space.

This essay introduces a new theoretical approach for the analysis of digital games with a hybrid structure between interactivity and narrativity called “internarrativity”. The aim of this model is to enable an appropriate examination of the synergies of what may be characterized as “symbiotic internarrative digital games”. Internarrativity as a theoretical concept is derived from sociology, media and communication studies, literary studies and digital game studies. The model consists of three interconnected and progressively concertizing planes: internarrativity, internarrative and internarration. Following explication of the model, a short example is discussed, rendering the presence and function of internarratives in current digital games visible through focusing on the zombie apocalypse and the superhero story and their use in internarrative digital games. The argumentation closes with a glimpse of the potential as well as some possible limitations of the model of internarrativity.

The aim of this master dissertation is to isolate distinguishing features of music post-production of primary feature films of John Cameron Mitchell, ‘Hedwig and the angry inch’ (2001) and ‘Shortbus’ (2006), from a comparative analysis. We will pay special attention to ‘Hedwig...’ because of its genre: a musical film. For that purpose, we will use a quantitative and qualitative method. Quantitative method warns about related to diegesis music types and music mixing in the soundtrack. Qualitative method, for its part, takes care about the meaning of song
lyrics in the stories, songs psychological functions and other details such as its auricularisation, acousmatic changes and the relationship between music and narrative rhythm, etc. Results point out that there is a solid common ground in booth music post-productions aside those distinguishing features (three times more spectacular music, 11,8% more presence of absolute mixed music, etc. for ‘Hedwig’), not that marked as originally assumed. Finally, we suggest to future investigation to verify if Cameron Mitchell has taken the way musical genre has always post-produced its music as authoral sign for all of their films.

This study is part of a master’s dissertation aiming to investigate the immersion of user interfaces in first person games using virtual reality. This evaluation is based on the concepts established by the Diegesis theory. Based on that, a table was created with the identified elements in the games that induce more or less immersion to the player. Through the data collected, a questionnaire was developed to obtain information from
developers, designers and players, to evaluate the most and the fewer immersive elements of the interfaces in the games selected. The results showed that the Diegetic and Spatial interfaces are the most immersive for virtual reality first person games, and the less immersive were the Meta and Non-Diegetic interfaces. Thus these results can be important if they influence the creation of games interfaces more immersive, because all players want to be immersed when playing games, in particular when playing in virtual environments.