 "Mise en abyme" is the French term for a similar literary device (also referring to the practice in heraldry of placing the image of a small shield on a larger shield).The literary device of stories within a story dates back to a device known as a "frame story", where a supplemental story is used to help tell the main story.Typically, the outer story or "frame" does not have much matter, and most of the work consists of one or more complete stories told by one or more storytellers.