ENGL 262G the Art of Literature

Prof. Robert Collins ENGL 262G—The Art of Literature

Setting Tip Sheet

How do we define setting?

If a character is a person in a story that IS something, DOES things, and WANTS things, then setting of the story will be the time and the place in which all of those things take place. Setting is, briefly, the context or the situation in which a story takes place. Setting is incredibly broad – it covers everything from the Milky Way to a particular room in a particular house, from historical epochs to a particular day of the week – but it’s also quite important for understanding whatever story you’re thinking about. The most relevant question will be: what effect does setting have on what characters can be, do, and want?

Here are three useful categories for thinking about setting:

1. Geographical or Physical setting: This is where the story happens. “Geography” implies that it’s happening on earth but – especially in science fiction and fantasy stories – this isn’t necessarily the case. Things like landscape will fall under this category: are we in the tundra, a desert, a forest, a city, outer space, or what? Physical distance is also important: the thing that you want may be hidden in your house, or it may be across the country. Where it is determines what you can and can’t do to get it. The weather will also fall under this category. 2. Temporal setting: This is the when of the story. At its broadest, this will be construed as when in human history. Does the story take place in the iron age, in 600 B.C., in the medieval period, in the information age? At a smaller scale, we can also think of the season(s) in which a story takes place (though the effects of the season will be apparent through the physical setting: it will be hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and so on). The day of the week might have some relevance for the plot. The duration of the plot also falls under this category: Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” takes place in an hour; Aleksandr Solzhenityn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich takes place in one day. Only certain kinds of plots can happen in such constricted settings! 3. Social setting: This is the most interesting and productive category. Once we are given the time and the place of a story – Georgia in 1861, let’s say – we know something about the particular form of human society that’s living there—in this case, a society in which (among other things) almost all wealth is produced by racialized chattel slavery. Let’s call this the social milieu in which a story takes place. This social milieu will, bar none, have the greatest effect on what a character can and cannot do, be, or want. And it need not be so broad as the economic organization of society: does the story take place in a school, on a battlefield, on a train, in someone’s house, at a resort? All of these things are essentially places or locations, it’s true, but they also carry a social significance that will take the form of customs and roles – what different people are expected to do, want, and be in those situations – and whether characters accept or reject these customs and roles will tell you a good deal about that character. Questions for thinking about Setting:

 Most obviously: What is it? When and where in what social milieu does the story take place?  More importantly: how do you know? That is, what specific passages from the text lead you to believe this?  If you aren’t sure whether a particular aspect of the setting is important, ask yourself: if this changed, how would the story be different?  Does the story occur in one time and place, or does this change?  Are certain aspects of the setting described in greater detail than others? Why?

Again, the most relevant question is: what effect do geography, time, and society have on what a given character can be, want, and do? At the end of the day, this is the importance of setting. The questions above are meant to help you formulate an answer to this question.