mise en abyme

noun2

1. •
   A recursive image; an image that contains a smaller representation of itself; especially where the smaller representation itself likewise contains a still smaller representation of the whole image, ad infinitum.
2. •
   Self-reflection or introspection in a literary or other artistic work; the representation of the whole work embedded in a work.

   • The narrative mapping of rhetorical strategies between narrator, characters and readers is supplemented by a network of interior duplication with the device of the mise en abyme. — 1992