RRhetoric
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Metaphor & Figuration

Metalepsis

met-uh-LEP-sis / ˌmɛtəˈlɛpsɪs

A figure built on another figure — a reference the reader reaches only through a chain of associations. In narrative, it names a break between levels: a character addressing the author, a narrator entering the story.

"I have drunk milk from the cow that scattered the seed" — reaching an idea through chained figures

Don't confuse it with Metonymy. Simple metonymy makes one associative hop; metalepsis needs at least two. The narrative sense (frame-breaking) is the common modern usage.

Drill its family — Metaphor & Figuration

In the Reader — 2 excerpts

Now I am ready to tell how bodies are changed
— Ovid, Metamorphoses (translated by A.D. Melville) · open the passage →
of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and
— Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn · open the passage →

The rest of the family

Metaphor Simile Catachresis Metonymy Synecdoche Personification Prosopopoeia Pathetic Fallacy Transferred Epithet / Hypallage Symbol Allusion Mythopoesis