Frame story

Rare card · No. 72053

A frame story (also known as a frame tale, framing device, frame narrative, sandwich narrative, nested narrative, or intercalation) is the literary technique and narrative structure in which an opening narrative introduces either a more emphasized second narrative or a set of shorter tales. The frame story leads readers from a first story into one or more other in-depth stories within it. In other words, a frame story is the use of one or more stories-within-a-story across the majority of a narrative's content, where the inner story is the main one: the one with the most detail. The frame story may be used to inform readers about aspects of the secondary narrative(s) that may otherwise be hard to understand. This should not be confused with narrative structure. Notable examples are the 1001 Nights and The Decameron.

Read on Wikipedia