Editing Mise en abyme (section)

==Critical theory and art history==
In [[Western art history]], ''mise en abyme'' is a formal technique in which an image contains a smaller copy of itself, in a sequence appearing to recur infinitely; "[[recursion]]" is another term for this. The modern meaning of the phrase originates with the author [[André Gide]] who used it to describe self-reflexive embeddings in various art forms and to describe what he sought in his work.<ref name='mise'>[http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/projects/medievalarttheory/documents/Mise-en-abyme.pdf Medieval ''mise-en-abyme'': the object depicted within itself (collection of papers)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102033517/http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/projects/medievalarttheory/documents/Mise-en-abyme.pdf |date=2013-11-02 }}</ref> As examples, Gide cites both paintings such as {{lang|es|[[Las Meninas]]}} by [[Diego Velázquez]] and literary forms such as [[William Shakespeare]]'s use of the "play within a play" device in ''[[Hamlet]]'', where a theatrical company presents a performance for the characters that illuminate a thematic aspect of the play itself. This use of the phrase ''mise en abyme'' was picked up by scholars and popularized in the 1977 book ''Le récit spéculaire. Essai sur la mise en abyme'' by [[Lucien Dällenbach]].<ref>Lucien Dällenbach, ''Le récit spéculaire. Essai sur la mise en abyme'', Paris, Seuil, 1977</ref>