American Literature / Unit 2 AML 0115 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Frame Narrative and the Tale Within a Tale
Captions available
The idea
A frame narrative encloses one story inside another, so a character in the outer story tells the inner one. The frame supplies a listener, a reason for telling, and a distance the author can use. American regional writers used it constantly to introduce a dialect speaker.
In practice
An outer teller, an inner tale.
Where people slip
Ask why the frame exists; it is never decoration.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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