This article compares the concepts of “text-within-a-text” and “mise en abyme”. Until now, there have been no attempts to analyze and differentiate them in Russian literary studies. This paper tries to identify these phenomena by considering the context of their emergence and conceptualization, by studying the semantic and functional criteria for differentiating them in narratives of 19th - 20th century, as well as by regarding the prospects of further integration of these two concepts.