Setting (fiction) Information & Setting (fiction) Links at HealthHaven.com

For other meanings, see setting.

In fiction, setting includes the time, location, and everything in which a story takes place, and initiates 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 plot, character, theme, and style, setting is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction.^[2] A setting is the time place and social environment a story takes place.

[edit] Role of setting

Setting is a key role in plot, as in man vs. nature or man vs. society stories. In some stories the setting becomes a character itself. ^[3] In such roles setting may be considered a plot device or literary device.

The term "setting" is often used to refer to the social milieu in which the events of a novel occur.^[4] Novelist and novel-writing instructor Donna Levin has described how this social milieu shapes the characters’ values.^[5] For example, the average citizen of Berkeley in the 1960s had very different attitudes towards authority, money, and pre-marital sex than those of the Antebellum South.

[edit] Types of setting

Settings may take various forms:

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

^ Truby, 2007, p. 145
^ Obstfeld, 2002, p. 1, 65, 115, 171.
^ Rozelle, 2005, p. 2.
^ Lodge, 1992, pps. 58-60.
^ Levin, 1992, pps.110-112.

[edit] References

Levin, Donna (1992). Get That Novel Started. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 0898795176.
Lodge, David (1992). The Art of Fiction. London: Martin, Secker & Warburg Ltd. ISBN 0140174923.
Obstfeld, Raymond (2002). Fiction First Aid: Instant Remedies for Novels, Stories and Scripts. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 158297117x.
Rozelle, Ron (2005). Write Great Fiction: Description & Setting. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 158297327x.
Truby, John (2007). Anatomy of a Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller. New York, NY: Faber and Faber, Inc. ISBN 9780865479517.

[0] Truby, 2007, p. 145

[1] Obstfeld, 2002, p. 1, 65, 115, 171.

[2] Rozelle, 2005, p. 2.

[3] Lodge, 1992, pps. 58-60.

[4] Levin, 1992, pps.110-112.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

Contents

[edit] Role of setting

[edit] Types of setting

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References