The Strength of the Voice

As in frame narratives, the metanarrative voice seems to speak at varying volumes at different times and in different places. In the case of the Arabian Nights, the reader is constantly aware of the narrative voice despite a complex web of narrative layers. Scheherazade's situation is one of life or death. The reader is aware that beyond the tale, there is a greater [T]ale which is more real and in a sense, more thrilling because of it's reality. And at the same time, the reader incarnates herself into the smaller frame and enjoys this aspect of the narrative also. Likewise, we may debate over the tensile strength of the Metanarrative Voice. Does the voice of, let's say, Freud ring loud enough to bring us back out of our smaller life stories again and again? Does his metanarrative effectively connect our personal narratives? What would be a fair criteria for that? I submit that his voice does penetrate and unite a wide range of stories. Will his thoughts and writing continue to hold us together through the ages? Is his metanarrative truly beyond all or is there a story which is bigger?

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.