The term framing device refers to the usage of the same single action, scene, event, setting, or any element of significance at both the beginning and end of an artistic, musical, or literary work. The repeated element thus creates a ‘frame’ within which the main body of work can develop.
The earliest example of this device is the frame story. Familiar examples of this include the Arabian Nights where Scheherazade must narrate stories in order to prevent her execution, Boccaccio's Decameron where young people run away from Florence to avoid the plague pass the time telling stories, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in which the host at the inn charges the travellers with each providing a tale.
Read more about Framing Device: Use in Narrative, Compared To Reprise
Famous quotes containing the words framing and/or device:
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men ... you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“Johnson did not answer ...; but talking for victory and determined to be master of the field, he had recourse to the device which Goldsmith imputed to him in the witty words of one of Cibber’s comedies. “There is no arguing with Johnson; for when his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.””
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)