Diegesis is the principle of what is known to the character, whereas non-diegesis is when things are unknown to the character. These principles confused me at first, but recently I have been able to distinguish what is diegetic and what is not, so for this blog I will help clear up the confusion that I once had. 

Diegetic elements are things that are known to the character and the audience together. This can be something as simple as a sound or as complex as a secret that is unravelling before the character’s eyes. As long as it is clear to both us and the character it can be categorized as diagetic. Simple right? 

Well non-diegetic elements are elements that are only known to outside observers. An example of non diegetic elements would be narration or background music that isn’t available to the character. 

Let me give you an example.

Stanley walks down the street with his two friends. They are reading texts as they walk and laugh and things that are going on with their friend group. One friend decides to turn the song 

Funkytown on from his phone, everyone dances. 

These are all diegetic elements because we know that this is happening. But when you look into the situation there is a lot more going on behind the scenes. You may realize that Tammy, the girl sitting next to Stanley, has a crush on him, but neither of them have stated anything about this, however we know because of context clues. That would be considered a non-diegetic element, because we know that this is going on, but Stanley has no idea and Tammy has never stated this fact verbally. 

What makes non-diegetic elements harder to detect is sometimes they may even appear as diegetic elements. Though it is clear through all of Tammy’s body language and actions that she likes Stanley, because it is not common knowledge to the viewer or the people in the scene, it is considered non-diegetic. 

There are many examples of non-diegetics becoming diegetics, for example when a character breaks the 4th wall, it becomes unclear whether his actions are known to the characters, or if only we know the information that the character shared when they broke the 4th wall. 

The way that I have learned to distinguish between them is by viewing the characters reactions when something happens that is unclear if it is diegetic or not. This tip works for most things that aren’t background sounds, as sometimes background sounds are made in a way that compliments the scene and goes with the actions on scene, which can really be confusing to tell if everyone hears it.

I find that most cinematic elements tend to be diegetic, because it is more natural for the writers to tell stories where everyone knows what it happening and the story line can develop. But with video games, it is important that some elements are not known to some of the characters, especially when building quests. In general it is hard to show something on a screen that is next to characters but also unknown to all of them.