The Significance of the Frame Narrative

The concept of the Metanarrative [narrative beyond all other narratives], as popularized in philosophy and theology by Lyotard, has a kind of incarnation in the literary conceit of the Frame Narrative. This conceit, while never as big as our proposed metanarratives, nevertheless informs the imagination as to the epic proportions of the created world, both inside our fictive frames and outside, in the real world.