Setting (narrative)
In works of narrative (especially fictional), the literary element, setting, includes the time and geographic location in which a story takes place, and helps initiate the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world [1] or milieu to include a context (especially society) beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may include culture, historical period, geography, and hour. Along with the plot, character, theme, and style, setting is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction.[2]
Role
Setting is an important element in a narrative and in some works the setting becomes a character itself. The term setting is often used to refer to the social milieu in which the events of a novel occur[3] and novelist Donna Levin has described how this social milieu shapes the characters’ values.[4] The elements of the story setting include the passage of time, which may be static in some stories or dynamic in others with, for example, changing seasons.
Types
Setting may take various forms:
- Alternate history
- Campaign setting
- Constructed world
- Dystopia
- Fantasy world
- Fictional city
- Fictional country
- Fictional crossover
- Fictional location
- Fictional universe
- Future history
- Imaginary world
- Mythical place
- Parallel universe
- Planets in science fiction
- Simulated reality
- Virtual reality
- Utopia
See also
Notes
References
- Levin, Donna (1992). Get That Novel Started. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 0-89879-517-6.
- Lodge, David (1992). The Art of Fiction. London: Martin, Secker & Warburg Ltd. ISBN 0-14-017492-3.
- Obstfeld, Raymond (2002). Fiction First Aid: Instant Remedies for Novels, Stories and Scripts. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 1-58297-117-X.
- Rozelle, Ron (2005). Write Great Fiction: Description & Setting. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 1-58297-327-X.
- Truby, John (2007). Anatomy of a Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller. New York, NY: Faber and Faber, Inc. ISBN 978-0-86547-951-7.
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