framing device

plural framing devices

1. human sciencesAn introductory or main narrative that provides a framework for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories.

   “Treehouse Of Horror III”’s framing device finds the good folks of Springfield telling stories during a Halloween party.

   2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), archived from the original on 15 Aug 2012

   2 more examples

   The attack sequence dissolves to the present, back to the circus sideshow of the first reel and the curious onlookers, awaiting a glimpse of the creature in the pit, the framing device all but forgotten during the past seventy minutes of full immersion in freakdom.

   1999, Thomas Doherty, Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 317

   There’s a framing device in which we see an elderly Rafiki telling the story to Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter), the young daughter of Lion King protagonist Simba

   2024 December 18, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Disney's taxidermized IP is brighter and livelier in Mufasa: The Lion King”, in AV Club