What is Setting?

 1. What is Setting? 



Definition

 

If plot and action are the way fictional works answer the question What happened?
and characters are the who, setting is the where and when. All action in fiction, as in the real world, takes place in a context or setting—a time and place and a social
environment or milieu.

Kinds of Setting

 

When: Temporal Setting

 

Where: Physical Setting

 

General Setting: the year(s), the region, country, or even world providing a historical and cultural context for the action.

 

Particular Settings: the specific time, the specific locales

 

2. Functions of Setting

 

Setting is one of the many ways we learn about characters and the chief means by which characters and plots take on a larger historical, social, or even universal significance.

 

3. Vague and Vivid Setting

 

Vague Setting: Time and Place are left vague as in archetypal settings

 

Vivid Setting: the setting generating the conflicts, defining the characters, and giving the story purpose and meaning.

 

 

 

  Related Binaries

setting.pdf  Setting