the.com/framing device
The story you tell to justify the story you actually wanted to tell.
means A narrative wrapper — a story, scene, or setup that encloses the main story, giving it context, distance, or an excuse to exist.
from From 'frame' in the literal sense — a border that holds a picture — extended since the 19th century to any structure that holds a narrative. The idea is old even if the term is newer: 'One Thousand and One Nights' frames its tales inside Scheherazade's nightly storytelling-for-survival, and Chaucer frames 'The Canterbury Tales' as stories told by pilgrims on a journey. 'Device' here keeps its ordinary sense of 'a contrivance, a tool built for a purpose' — making the whole phrase admit, honestly, that the frame is a mechanism, not an accident.
- classic example
- Canterbury Tales pilgrims swapping stories on a road trip
- movie trick
- old person narrating their younger self, see Titanic
- secret function
- lets writers skip boring setup via a wraparound excuse
- risk
- audience likes the frame more than the actual story