word for a work within a work?

April 29, 2011 9:29 PM

(for a friend) I am looking for "the word used to describe a description of a work of art or poem within another work--its a term used in art history and poetics, and it drives me crazy that it escapes me."
posted by idiopath to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Allusion.
posted by cp311 at 9:34 PM on April 29, 2011

Best answer: Is it ekphrasis?
posted by Hellgirl at 9:34 PM on April 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

ekphrasis
posted by John Cohen at 9:35 PM on April 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

(An allusion is an indirect reference, not a description.)
posted by John Cohen at 9:36 PM on April 29, 2011

Ekphrasis in literature is generally when a poem or a piece of prose is about another work of art (or inspired by it). Are you asking about an actual poem used in a painting? Or a painting used in a literary work? Because I don't know that ekphrasis covers that (says the doctoral student NOT writing a paper RIGHT NOW about ekphrasis).
posted by mrfuga0 at 9:47 PM on April 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

They reference other works of art.
posted by adamvasco at 10:21 AM on April 30, 2011

Story with a story? Or maybe a Mise en abyme?
posted by Deflagro at 11:15 AM on April 30, 2011

Diegesis? "[...] the author may include elements which are not intended for the primary narrative, such as stories within stories [...]"
posted by zusty at 12:56 PM on April 30, 2011

This may be a vague term, but it does encompass what you are describing – intertextuality?
posted by to recite so charmingly at 6:50 PM on April 30, 2011

Mise en abime was what came to my mind too.
posted by Ellemeno at 10:26 PM on May 2, 2011