Setting (narrative)

The setting is both the time and geographic location within a narrative or within a work of fiction. A literary element, the setting helps initiate the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world 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.

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 and novelist Donna Levin has described how this social milieu shapes the characters’ values. 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.

Setting may take various forms:

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