The
best way for us to understand frames within literature is to start
with a 'Frame Story': “A story in which another story is enclosed
or embedded as a ‘tale within the tale’” (Oxford dictionary of
Literary Terms, Baldick, 2008, page 46)
Simply,
the 'frame' within a story is something that separates one part of
the story from another, whether that be a narrative separate to a
main narrative or a story separate to the main/original story told by
a character. It is a concept that is best to be acknowledged when
noticed, then thought nothing more of to avoid stress. Just remember
to keep track of which story is being told.
'Frames'
within literature extend much further than I have already suggested.
We can easily argue that any story is just a framed part of an even
larger narrative. Usually Metafictional texts contain some form of
discussion regarding how arbitrary the labelling of beginnings and
endings are.
For
example: Graham Greene's The End of the Affair,. 'A story has
no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of
experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead'
(Greene, 1951, page 7).
Viewing
a text in this way creates many questions regarding the nature of a
text in general. Is it even possible for us to get a 'full story'? If
we wanted the full story of Barth's Ambrose, we would need to begin
our story at the birth of Ambrose, or would we? Would that be far
enough back? Because to reach his birth we need to regress even
further back to his parents and even further back to their parents
and so on until we end up in an infinite regression where the
information we sought is lost far beyond our reach.
When
Considering Waugh's statement “What is the 'frame' that separates
reality from fiction?” we must take into consideration that the
'reality' we are separating from fiction, may not itself be real.
Erving Goffman's Frame Analysis argues that there is no
dichotomy, simple or otherwise between fiction and reality:
“When
we decide that something is unreal, the real it isn’t need not
itself be very real, indeed, can just as well be a dramatization of
events as the events themselves – or a rehearsal of the
dramatization, or a painting of the rehearsal or a reproduction of
the painting. Any of these latter can serve as the original of which
something is a mere mock-up, leading one to think that which is
sovereign is relationship – not substance.” (Goffman, 1974, Page
560-561)
This
argues that the importance of the subjects is not defined through how
'real' they are in contrast to the fictional, but how they work
together either as contrasting entities or as a singularity to create
successful end results. This is key within works of Metafiction and
fiction in general.
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