frame story

frame story, overall unifying story within which one or more tales are related. In the single story, the opening and closing constitutes a frame. In the cyclical frame story—that is, a story in which several tales are related—some frames are externally imposed and only loosely bind the diversified stories. For example, in The Thousand and One Nights, the frame consists of the story of Scheherazade, who avoids death by telling her king-husband a story every...